Caucasia | Literary Precedents

Caucasia Literary Precedents

Various kinds of "passing" novels have remained popular for years, beginning with slave narratives such as The Narrative Life of Frederick Douglass or Harriet Jacobs' Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. Like these earlier texts, Caucasia also suggests that passing is done primarily for survival, but Birdie's passing is one which lasts considerably longer.

Caucasia is also reminiscent of Nella Larsen's Passing, a 1920 novel that illustrated the emotional and psychological repercussions of passing. Caucasia also reminds readers of John Howard Griffin's 1961 Black Like Me, a white man's account of passing as black in the deep south, who becomes, like Birdie, a "spy in enemy territory."