"A Fascination, Strange and Compelling": Marriage as the Prevention of Queerness in Nella Larsen's Passing.

Nella Larsen's Passing has been commonly read through a queer lens that presents Clare and Irene's relationship with each other as erotic yet repressed. Irene's repression of her desire and the subsequent narrative can be read as stemming from compulsory heterosexuality. This causes Irene to uphold the institution of marriage at any cost to prevent the sexual freedom that could lead to open queerness on not only her part, but also Brian's and Clare's. All three characters interact with their queerness in conjunction with their race, attempting to use or suppress it for different societal ends. As such, the queer dimension to Passing can be understood as standing in direct opposition to the inevitability of heterosexual union, as Irene alone attempts to preserve heterosexuality, even to the death. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]