Passing

Use these activities to engage all types of learners, while requiring that they refer to and incorporate details from the text over the course of the activity. 

Activity 1: Passing in Black and White

In 2021, Netflix released the film adaptation of Passing starring Ruth Negga and Tessa Thompson. Produced in black and white, the film stays true to Larsen’s original text while exploring its themes on race identity, intersectional identity, and relationships between women. After finishing the novel, watch the movie adaptation. How does this adaptation use cinematic techniques to bring Nella Larsen’s themes to life? What additional depth does the film provide for an overall understanding of Passing?

• As you watch the film, note the cinematic techniques and their significance to the overall story.

Cinematic Techniques Significance to the Story

Black and White Cinematography:

Performances:

Script:

Upon completing the film analysis, write a comparison analysis essay. Explain what “passing,” as portrayed in Larsen’s novel and filmmaker Rebecca Hall’s Netflix adaptation, means. What does the act of passing suggest about race more generally? What layers do Irene and Clare’s femininity provide to the message about race? Provide examples.

Teaching Suggestion: Students may find it more productive to complete the film analysis worksheet after watching the film instead of during the viewing. The table can serve as an organized and bite-sized way to keep students thinking about director’s decisions, but the points of focus in the worksheet can be edited to suit teaching goals and students’ experiences. Vanity Fair’s YouTube channel has a series of videos in which directors break down certain scenes in their popular films (see John Krasinski Breaks Down the Opening Scene from "A Quiet Place II" as an example), which teachers may find useful in giving students vocabulary and structural understanding of the creative analytical work directors do to bring a story to life.

Paired Resource Extension:

Rebecca Hall is the director of Netflix’s adaptation of Passing. Primarily known for her work as an actress, Hall’s interest in Nella Larsen’s novel stems from her own experiences as a white woman uncovering her family secrets of a heritage of passing as white. Listen to Rebecca Hall's interview with NPR about her attraction to the original text, and what inspired her decisions to adapt the novel into a film.

Then, select either Clare or Irene to interview for your own hypothetical podcast. What questions would you ask her? How will you respond to their answers, and what is your goal for the interview?

Teaching Suggestion: Students may find it productive to have a worksheet of prompts as they listen to the podcast. The link included above has a breakdown of the important topics hit upon in the interview. Teachers can use those topics as bullet points for students to be on the lookout for as they listen.

Activity 2: Clare’s Voice

Passing is told through the first-person point of view of Irene. Though her analysis of Clare is thorough, it is necessarily biased and influenced by Irene’s own identity as a woman of color. In this activity, students will provide Clare an opportunity to tell her side of the story by re-imagining important scenes in the novel through Clare’s first-person point of view.

Part A: Select a scene in the book that is important to Clare. Possibilities include:

• meeting Irene in the Drayton hotel bar
• the Negro Welfare League dance
• time spent with Brian
• the final party in which John confronts Clare

Part B: Using the original novel for important plot and thematic moments, re-write your selected scene through Clare’s point-of-view. As you write, consider the following prompts:

• After decades of passing, Clare likely has an affected voice. What does she sound like when she speaks?
• Clare misses being a part of the Black community. What characteristics of Brian or Irene would Clare be particularly attracted to?
• What does Clare want? What does she fear?