Comprehensive Notes on Larsen’s Transnational Identity and Quicksand

Transnational Identity & Nella Larsen

Larsen's Danish Connections

Nella Larsen's Danish-American identity and her connection to her Danish ethnic background have often been dismissed or overlooked in Larsen scholarship.
Some scholars even doubted or denied that Larsen ever traveled to Denmark, leading to her journeys being interpreted as fantasy projections.
This suppression of Larsen's Danish ties may stem from a desire to solidify her position within the African-American literary canon, which her Danish roots could potentially destabilize.
George Hutchinson's work, particularly "In Search of Nella Larsen," has been transformative in expanding Larsen's Harlem Renaissance identity in transnational directions.
Hutchinson discovered ship records proving that Larsen visited Denmark with her mother and half-sister in 1898 and lived there between 1909 and 1912.
This evidence supports a transnational perspective on Larsen's authorship, acknowledging her Scandinavian heritage.
Within Denmark, Nella Larsen has been largely unknown until recently.
Danish students studying Quicksand find connections between Larsen's representations of race in Copenhagen and their own experiences in multicultural Denmark.
The "Denmark and the Black Atlantic" conference in Copenhagen in 2006 further investigated Larsen's relationship with Denmark.

Structuring Absence in Quicksand

The novel's Denmark scenes contain a structuring absence related to Denmark's attitudes towards its colonial heritage in the Danish West Indies and its role in the black Atlantic slave trade.
The text uses narrative focalization to convey suppressed tensions of racism and xenophobia in Copenhagen.
The novel's silence about the Danish colonial legacy parallels the Danish public silence on the issue in the early 20th century.

Scandinavian-American Context

Quicksand functions as an early modernist prose text within both an African-American and a Scandinavian-American context.
The novel references Scandinavian literary modernism, including the works of Jens Peter Jacobsen, Henrik Ibsen, and the Modern Breakthrough movement.
Helga Crane, the protagonist, bears resemblance to Jacobsen's Niels Lyhne and Ibsen's Hedda Gabler.
Larsen's familiarity with Scandinavian culture and her engagement with Scandinavian modernism contribute to a transnational, trans-racial modernism.
Larsen's absence from the Scandinavian-American canon, which includes authors like Ole Rølvaag and Willa Cather, is notable.

Nella Larsen's Family History

Larsen's family history reflects the triangulating and transnational relationships explored in her work.
She was born to a Danish mother and a father of color from the Danish West Indies and grew up as the stepdaughter of a white Danish immigrant in Chicago.
After attending Fisk Normal School, she lived in Copenhagen from 1909 to 1912 and later returned to New York City to study nursing.
In the early 1920s, Larsen moved in upper-class black society in New York, married Dr. Elmer S. Imes, and befriended figures in the Harlem Renaissance.
Larsen's literary fame was brief, and she eventually returned to nursing, living in anonymity until her death in 1964.

Quicksand's Plot and Copenhagen

Quicksand's protagonist, Helga Crane, shares a mixed racial heritage with Larsen, and the novel's plot mirrors aspects of Larsen's life.
The Copenhagen section of the novel is central, with detailed descriptions of the city's landmarks, street scenes, and customs.
Copenhagen is contrasted with Harlem, emphasizing its orderliness and tranquility compared to New York's frenetic energy.
Helga observes the widespread practice of bicycling in Copenhagen and learns to navigate the streets like a local.

Helga's Impressions and Contradictions

Helga's memories of a difficult childhood in Chicago and her experiences with racial conventions at Naxos College are juxtaposed with idealized impressions of Copenhagen from her childhood.
She envisions Copenhagen as a place without racial problems or prejudice, contradicting Denmark's colonial history and the presence of Afro-Caribbeans in the city.

Danish Colonial History

The Danish West Indies was colonized in 1666 and sold to the United States in 1917, becoming the Virgin Islands.
These islands played a significant role in the Middle Passage and the slave trade; Denmark imported 1,000 slaves annually until the trade was abolished in 1803.
Slavery continued in the Danish West Indies until 1848 under harsh conditions.
By the late 19th century, the Danish West Indies became a financial burden for Denmark.
Few Danes outside of government or military roles would have visited the West Indies, and Danish was not commonly spoken there.
The Danish West Indies had limited presence in Danish public discourse, possibly due to the emphasis on agrarian-based Danishness.
A 1903 referendum to sell the colony failed due to nationalistic sentiments.
The Danish West Indies functioned as a symbolically important but abstract satellite of Danish national ideology.

Colonial Exhibition of 1905

The Colonial Exhibition of 1905 in Copenhagen aimed to raise public awareness and support for the colonies.
Former Afro-Caribbean slaves and their descendants were brought to Copenhagen, along with artifacts from other Danish colonies.
After the exhibition, it became more common for Copenhagen families to employ African servants and nannies.
During Larsen's second stay in Denmark (1909-1912), public interest in the Danish West Indies increased.
Quicksand's depiction of Helga as a prize trophy reflects this perspective.

Helga's Exoticism

Helga's aunt and uncle exploit her exoticism to advance their social standing.
Helga is presented as a cosmopolitan foreigner of dark complexion, but not explicitly categorized by race.
Larsen's use of Copenhagen challenges earlier American novels that portrayed Europe as an interracial haven.
Quicksand's Copenhagen exists as a pre-World War I utopia, concealing the presence of the Danish West Indies in Danish cultural discourse.

Larsen's Personal Connection

Larsen described herself as the daughter of a Danish lady and a Negro from the Virgin Islands.
In Quicksand, Aunt Katrina tells Helga that any brains she has came from her father, contrasting American racial views of mulattos.
Fru Fischer views American jazz as a threat to Danish national culture.
Europe in Quicksand doesn't offer freedom from racism but displays a different kind of racism tied to its colonial and slave trade legacy.

The Dahls' Indifference

The Dahls are oblivious to the historical ramifications of Denmark's involvement in the slave trade and the Danish West Indies.
Aunt Katrina avoids discussing mixed-race identity as a problem in Denmark.
Helga is displayed like an exotic trophy, and metaphors of slavery and bondage allude to both the history of slavery in the United States and the potential for a reading related to Denmark's Grundtvigian values.

Larsen's Background

Hutchinson's research reveals Larsen's impoverished background in Chicago, where many destitute immigrants lived.
Larsen's mother likely emigrated from Denmark for economic reasons and worked as a servant or dress-maker.
Larsen's father may have had some familiarity with Danish from the Danish West Indies and held periods of stable income.
It's possible Larsen's mother, like other immigrant women, formed liaisons out of necessity, given the economic hardships.

Conditions Absent in Quicksand

The harsh conditions of immigrant life in Chicago and Copenhagen are conspicuously absent in Quicksand.
For example, Helga visits a well-to-do uncle in Chicago, which Larsen herself did not have.

Class and Social Capital

The jewels, clothes, and luxuries associated with Helga's relatives in Copenhagen highlight their class and social capital.
The Dahls reside in a middle-class area, and Helga also visits working-class areas, commenting on the poverty she sees.
Helga's sophistication contrasts with the crude remarks of working-class Copenhageners who stare at "Den Sorte" (the Black One).

Axel Olsen and Racial Tension

Aunt Katrina promotes a marriage between Helga and the painter Axel Olsen to elevate the family's social status.
Olsen appraises Helga as if she were for sale, echoing the words of a slave buyer.
Although Olsen's painting of Helga gains attention, Helga views it as a depiction of her as a primitive, sexual jungle princess and a stereotype.

Olsen's Marriage Proposal

Olsen proposes marriage to Helga, revealing his belief that she has the nature of women of Africa and the soul of a prostitute.
Helga rejects his proposal, objecting to the racialized and sexualized stereotypes.
Uncle Poul struggles to understand Helga's reasons for refusing Olsen, unable to express the transnational, multi-racial particularities of her situation.
Helga's inability to articulate her feelings is coded as an inability to express her complex identity in Danish.
The narrative suggests that Helga is insufficiently civilized and too impulsive, reflecting a lack of mutual comprehension.

Helga's Silences

Helga's silences reflect class, gender, displacement, and migration.
She indulges in a phantasmagoric reconstruction of the homeland, but her reactions to the Dahls and Olsen reveal the instability of this paradigm.
Helga's uniqueness is marked by class; she is aestheticized as racially abstract and exotic.

Larsen's Re-imagining

Helga's role as a sophisticated cosmopolitan contrasts with the experiences of most Scandinavian-Americans returning to the homeland.
Larsen may be re-imagining her experiences of being mistaken for a servant in Copenhagen.
The inhabitants of the city in Quicksand seem fictionalized to a significant extent.

Harlem Renaissance Context

Larsen composed Quicksand during the Harlem Renaissance, associating with Carl Van Vechten, W. E. B. Du Bois, and others.
This group promoted an aesthetic avant-garde and challenged racial stereotypes.
Larsen's early writings included essays on Danish children's games, reflecting her first-hand experiences in Denmark.
Larsen reconstructed her experiences in Copenhagen to reflect the political and aesthetic inclinations of the Harlem Renaissance.

Josephine Baker Parallels

Helga is portrayed as an exoticized Other, but her sexual innocence contrasts with the export of African-American sensuality, exemplified by Josephine Baker.
A Harlem scene references the advantages of living in Europe and a Negro dancer achieving success in a white musical comedy, alluding to Baker's cult status in Paris.
Baker's erotic cabaret performances were popular in Scandinavia, but Helga's reactions to such sensationalism are very different.
Helga is pushed to be more sensual and primitive by others, not by her own desires.
Olsen wrongly assumes Helga to be a sexualized Josephine Baker figure.

White Fantasy of Blackness

Helga goes to a vaudeville house in Copenhagen with her family and Olsen, where a blackface minstrel act delights the crowd, causing Helga discomfort.
She feels ashamed and betrayed, but also develops sympathy for her black father, understanding his rejection of her mother's formality.
Helga charts a new transnational identity based on her reactions to performances of blackness for Scandinavian consumption.

Larsen's Activities in Copenhagen

Larsen attended lectures at Copenhagen University and kept up with cultural news.
As an author, Larsen adopts the perspective of a social outsider, similar to figures in the Modern Breakthrough movement.
She writes like a Scandinavian modernist, foregrounding snobbishness, class obsession, and the exchange of women through marriage.
Quicksand's themes, formal construction, and aesthetic conceptualization align with modern Scandinavian literature.
Georg Brandes's call for comparative literature across national and linguistic boundaries foreshadows Larsen's intervention into Scandinavian modernism.

Quicksand as a Modernist Novel

Quicksand is both a canonical work of the Harlem Renaissance and a modernist novel of European vintage.
Larsen's use of free indirect discourse is reminiscent of J. P. Jacobsen's Niels Lyhne, which features a similar protagonist obsessed with visually pleasing objects.
Helga and Niels both search for self-fulfillment in aesthetic pursuits and die prosaic deaths in poverty.
The novels share formal similarities and employ free indirect discourse to convey the characters' contradictions. Jacobsen's female characters frequently react against their male counterparts' aestheticization, rebelling at being seen as artwork.

Jacobsen's Transnational Legacies

Niels Lyhne inspired Rainer Maria Rilke's The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge and influenced Thomas Mann's Tonio Kröger.
By emphasizing Helga's inability to articulate her deepest feelings, Larsen underscores her predicament.
Helga's silences and the use of free indirect discourse in Quicksand reveal parallels to the novel's social moment.
Helga's reticence evokes Denmark's role in the slave trade and its hidden racism; Larsen is underscoring by linguistic suppression her main character's predicament.
Helga's silence marks her as representative of the threatening, unknowable, and aestheticized Other.

Connections to Scandinavian Modern Breakthrough

Quicksand alludes to Ibsen's An Enemy of the People, mapping Ibsen's critique of mass conformity onto Harlem's black bourgeoisie.
Ibsen's Nora Helmer from A Doll's House prefigures Helga, who understands that her relatives are transforming her into a pampered doll and a sexual commodity.
Quicksand deliberately evokes Ibsen's Hedda Gabler, with both Hedda and Helga sharing irrational and self-destructive impulses and aesthetic idealism.

Ellen Key and Scandinavian Design

The Alabama section of Quicksand obliquely references Swedish feminist Ellen Key, who advocated for women's equality through dedicated care of home and children.
Helga preaches about good design and improving homes, aligning with Scandinavian functionalism and design doctrines.

Elusive Identity

Parallels between the United States and Denmark operate on many levels in Larsen's novel.
Larsen's narrative devices and Helga's character suggest that a transnational and transracial identity remains elusive.
The relationships are multiple, and Larsen's representation of Denmark is unusual in its references to colonial heritage and racialized conceptions of modernity.
Quicksand emphasizes Helga's silences, and contemporary Danish historiography still silences references to its colonial past.

Double Consciousness

Helga is generally described as quiet and rarely explains her point of view; the narrator seldom intervenes.
This creates a slippage between what is stated and what is repressed, evoking W. E. B. Du Bois's term double consciousness.
Du Bois defines double consciousness as the condition in which the African American always feels two-ness as both an American and a Negro.
Quicksand compounds this duality with Helga's self-identifications as neither white nor black yet both, and by sexism.
The novel evokes Denmark as constitutive of Helga's identities and of Larsen as a unique Danish-American author within modernism.

Scandinavian Scholarship

Knowledge of Larsen and Quicksand in Scandinavia is limited to those familiar with American literature.
Her fiction has not been translated into Scandinavian languages.
Larsen's writing redefines the borders of both the Harlem Renaissance and the Scandinavian-American literary canon.
Chronicling an urban, modernist, and transatlantic Scandinavian-American experience, Larsen examines the experience of an émigré from the United States in Europe.
This challenges the implicit silences of Denmark's colonial engagement and its continued presence in the black Atlantic.