Illuminating Race: Light, Dark and the Social Construction of Identity in Brit Bennett’s The Vanishing Half

الملخص

This study examines the symbolism of light and darkness in The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett (2020) to idealise race and colourism. It applies the Critical Race Theory to explain how Bennett deploys the colour imagery to criticies the racial hierarchies and explain that identity is fluid. This research shows how the novel uses the motifs of light and artificial light in revealing the social construction of race and the affective price of the passing of the race. It examines the influence of whiteness negotiation by Stella in brightness and performance, as well as those of Desiree and Jude in being Black and adopting Blackness in darkness, authenticity, and marginality through close reading of the novel. Such binary oppositions indicate that the racial categories are not definitive and how psychology breaks down in the face of people who are forced to deal with it. The paper concludes that Bennett derails binary conceptualisations of race, and she employs visual metaphors to dismantle the notion of stable racial identity. The figure of whiteness is symbolised as aspirational but hollow, whereas the figure of Blackness is presented as self-sustaining and assertive. This study suggests how the novel The Vanishing Half can be integrated into the pedagogy of Critical Race Theory in order to analyse the concepts of race, identity, and colourism in literature. It also suggests further research into how gender, class, and signs of colour interface in the modern accounts of racial passing.