Cognitive Dissonance in Nella Larsen's Passing

Abstract:In 1957, Leon Festinger published his findings on cognitive dissonance, and subsequently his theory became an important staple in social psychology. However, the concept of cognitive dissonance has not often been applied in the field of literature. Nella Larsen's Passing makes a strong case for the usefulness of cognitive dissonance, particularly when it comes to teaching our students not what to think but how to think in our current complex conversations about race and the multiplicity (and often conflicting nature) of our lived experiences. Passing narratives often show how the act of passing allows individuals access to certain freedoms typically unavailable to them; but Passing, by being imbedded within Irene's troubled cognitive space, also shows us the confining nature of a world in which passing acts as one of the only pathways to these freedoms. Teaching our students how to use cognitive dissonance—both the dissonance that exists within the story and the dissonance that can come from the story—is a way toward freedom: a freedom that does not transgress boundaries but destroys them altogether.