Ivory Masks: Performance in Nella Larsen’s Passing and J.D. Salinger’s Franny and Zooey

Ivory Masks: Performance in Nella Larsen’s Passing and J.D. Salinger’s Franny and Zooey

Nella Larsen’s Clare Kendry is a classic, even exaggerated example of what some of J.D. Salinger’s most famous characters would call a “phony.” Salinger goes on about phonies in both The Catcher in the Rye and Franny and Zooey, with Franny Glass suffering a nervous breakdown at the phoniness of it all in Franny and Zooey. Clare Kendry’s “passing” lifestyle in Passing is a concentrated version of the performative behaviour Franny complains about.…