Passing (novel)
E734846
"Passing" is a 1929 novel by Nella Larsen that explores race, identity, and colorism through the intertwined lives of two light-skinned Black women in Harlem who navigate the dangerous social practice of racial passing.
All labels observed (2)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Passing (novel) canonical | 4 |
| Passing (1929 novel) | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T8450483 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Passing (novel) Context triple: [Passing (2021 film), basedOn, Passing (novel)]
-
A.
The Pas
The Pas is a northern Manitoba town known as a regional service and transportation hub with strong Indigenous heritage and a history rooted in fur trading and resource industries.
-
B.
The Pass
The Pass is a renowned surf break and scenic beach area in Byron Bay, Australia, popular for its long right-hand waves, lookout, and coastal walking tracks.
-
C.
The Pass
The Pass is a British drama film adapted from a stage play that explores the complex relationship and sexuality of two professional footballers over several years.
-
D.
A Woman’s Tale
A Woman’s Tale is a 1991 Australian drama film by director Paul Cox that poignantly portrays the final days and emotional resilience of an elderly woman facing terminal illness.
-
E.
Paama
Paama is an Oceanic language spoken primarily on Paama Island in central Vanuatu.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Passing (novel) Target entity description: "Passing" is a 1929 novel by Nella Larsen that explores race, identity, and colorism through the intertwined lives of two light-skinned Black women in Harlem who navigate the dangerous social practice of racial passing.
-
A.
The Pas
The Pas is a northern Manitoba town known as a regional service and transportation hub with strong Indigenous heritage and a history rooted in fur trading and resource industries.
-
B.
The Pass
The Pass is a renowned surf break and scenic beach area in Byron Bay, Australia, popular for its long right-hand waves, lookout, and coastal walking tracks.
-
C.
The Pass
The Pass is a British drama film adapted from a stage play that explores the complex relationship and sexuality of two professional footballers over several years.
-
D.
A Woman’s Tale
A Woman’s Tale is a 1991 Australian drama film by director Paul Cox that poignantly portrays the final days and emotional resilience of an elderly woman facing terminal illness.
-
E.
Paama
Paama is an Oceanic language spoken primarily on Paama Island in central Vanuatu.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (48)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
Harlem Renaissance literature
ⓘ
novel ⓘ |
| adaptation | Passing (2021 film) ⓘ |
| author | Nella Larsen ⓘ |
| centralTheme |
class and social status
ⓘ
colorism ⓘ friendship and rivalry ⓘ marriage and domestic life ⓘ racial identity ⓘ racial passing ⓘ respectability politics ⓘ sexual ambiguity ⓘ |
| countryOfOrigin |
United States
ⓘ
linked to:
United States of America
|
| criticalReception |
recognized as a classic of African-American literature
ⓘ
widely studied in literary and cultural studies ⓘ |
| endingStyle | ambiguous ⓘ |
| form | prose fiction ⓘ |
| genre |
African-American literature
ⓘ
modernist literature ⓘ psychological fiction ⓘ social novel ⓘ |
| hasMotif |
duality and doubleness
ⓘ
mirrors and reflection ⓘ social performance ⓘ |
| hasPageCountApprox | 120–150 pages ⓘ |
| hasSubject | intersections of race, gender, and class ⓘ |
| influenced | scholarship on race and passing in American literature ⓘ |
| literaryMovement | Harlem Renaissance ⓘ |
| mainCharacter |
Clare Kendry
ⓘ
Irene Redfield ⓘ |
| narrativePerspective | third-person limited ⓘ |
| narratorFocalization | Irene Redfield ⓘ |
| originalLanguage | English ⓘ |
| partOf | Nella Larsen’s major works ⓘ |
| plotElement |
Clare Kendry passes as white in white society
ⓘ
Clare Kendry’s racist white husband is unaware of her ancestry ⓘ Irene Redfield lives as a Black woman in Harlem ⓘ
linked to:
Irene Redfield
ambiguous death of Clare Kendry ⓘ reunion of childhood friends Irene Redfield and Clare Kendry ⓘ |
| precededBy |
Quicksand (novel)
ⓘ
linked to:
Quicksand
|
| protagonistEthnicity |
African American
ⓘ
linked to:
Black Americans
|
| protagonistsSkinColor | light-skinned Black women ⓘ |
| publicationYear | 1929 ⓘ |
| publisher | Alfred A. Knopf ⓘ |
| setIn |
Harlem
ⓘ
New York City ⓘ |
| settingContext |
Jim Crow era United States
ⓘ
linked to:
Jim Crow laws
|
| timePeriod | 1920s ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Passing (novel) Description of subject: "Passing" is a 1929 novel by Nella Larsen that explores race, identity, and colorism through the intertwined lives of two light-skinned Black women in Harlem who navigate the dangerous social practice of racial passing.
Referenced by (5)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
linked to: Passing (novel)