Currently Reading

As part of my personal summer reading program to get more acquainted with literature from the 1920s and 1930s, I’m delving into work by writers associated with The Harlem Renaissance period. Currently, I’m pages away from finishing Passing by Nella Larsen, a short novella about two young, African American women living in the late 1920s. The main character Irene is conflicted with her childhood friend Claire’s practice of ‘passing’ for white and her seemingly boundless drive to ‘have’ whatever she puts her mind to — including, it seems, Irene’s husband. The writing is both vivid and enjoyable and goes by too quickly.

I’m also a third finished with Teach Yourself Film Studies by Warren Buckland. This insightful read delves into film aesthetics, structure, authorship, genres, documentary types, and approaches in reviewing. It’s worth it alone for the author’s analysis of David Lynch’s enigmatic Mulholland Drive. So far, I’ve been especially interested in types of narrative structure and narration.