Is any one moment of the novel’s reputation more valid or authentic than the others? Is there a past moment of the novel’s reputation that today’s readers would be most likely to connect with?
Clark Barwick writes in his article, “A History of Passing,” that “each successive generation [of readers] has actively and even literally projected its own needs, desires, and anxieties” on the novel, such that the “record of publication and reading provides us with critical insight not just into the shifting interpretation of an important novel but […]