Quicksand (Magill’s Survey of American Literature, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Nella Larsen
- First Published: 1928
- Type of Work: Novel
- Genres: Long fiction, Psychological fiction, Social realism, Autobiographical fiction
- Subjects: African Americans, Teaching or teachers, Self-discovery, United States or Americans, Racism, Race, Sex or sexuality, Biracial people, Alienation, Harlem Renaissance, 1920’s, Multiculturalism, Denmark or Danish people, Conformity, Scandinavia or Scandinavians
- Locales: Harlem, NY, Chicago, IL, Alabama, Copenhagen, Denmark
Quicksand, Larsen's first novel, is generally considered the better of the two. The work is a superb psychological study of a complicated and appealing woman, Helga Crane, who, like Larsen herself, is the product of a liaison between a black man and a white woman. In one sense, Quicksand might be called an odyssey; however, instead of overcoming a series of obstacles and finally arriving at her native land, Larsen's protagonist has a series of adventures, each of which ends in disappointment. Whenever Helga believes that she has found her home, and with it her identity,...
[The entire page is 1715 words long]
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