Vainly seeking the promised land: Geography and migration in the fiction of Nella Larsen and Toni Morrison

Within this project, I trace representations of geography, identity, and migration in Nella Larsen's Quicksand (1928) and Passing (1929) and Toni Morrison's Beloved (1987) and Jazz (1992). These two writers propel their fictional characters on trajectories of discovery where journeys between the American South and North are common and where the travels are often as important as either the origins or destinations. In each of the four texts, I examine the intertwining structures of geographical relocation and emotional exploration that Larsen and Morrison use, particularly through their treatment of the myth of the Promised Land. While Larsen reveals her overwhelmingly bleak perspective of the limited possibilities she perceives for her characters, Morrison's vision is more hopeful, and her characters ultimately are able to surpass their geographical, cultural, and emotional obstacles.;By examining each authors' use of the rural South, journeys and borders, and northern urban environments, I reveal some of the thematic concerns common to Larsen and Morrison. But while each writer presents her characters searching both for identity and home, Larsen and Morrison present starkly divergent philosophies. Whereas Larsen's fictional view is of a hostile, pessimistic tension between person and place, Morrison renders a more intimate and personal relationship, as her characters are able to achieve nurturing, harmonic existences, eventually becoming at peace with their geographical, communal, and emotional situations.;During the sixty or so years separating the publications of Larsen's and Morrison's works, much has changed in American society in general and in African American culture in particular, perhaps contributing to the variances between these writers' presentations of their fictional worlds. Writing squarely within the Harlem Renaissance, Larsen expresses little hope for personal freedom, especially for women--no matter where they end up. Over half a century later, Morrison offers a world of possibility and redemption, even though struggles against oppression still flourish. Through personal exploration, in conjunction with supportive intimate relationships, Morrison demonstrates that transcendence can actually become probable, as the most powerful Promised Land is within.