Gender melancholia, humanity and authentic selves : an analysis of the disruptive power of women's relationships in Passing, Jazz and Sula

Abstract Beginning with Judith Butler's theory of gender melancholia and coupled with her discussion of illegibility, this thesis explores the effects of grief that cannot be socially expressed on identity. Broadening Butler's argument, it argues that cultural prescriptions involving race, class and gender can create environments where false identities are created as a means of remaining legible or within the normative structures. These false identities are sometimes created with varying levels of consciousness of the social forces that demand them. Looking at Nella Larsen's Passing and Toni Morrison's Jazz and Sula, it seems that with varying levels of success, women's relationships with one another can break these false identities and help to create authentic identities by creating an environment that fosters honesty and communication.