(Updated) Fashion, Culture and the Literary and Media Arts
Department of English, World Languages, and Philosophy
April 20th and April 21st 2023
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Fashion and literature have a long, intricate relationship. The function of clothing is primarily to conceal the body, yet in some literary texts and film, clothing can often reveal something about character, whether by its style, value, or use. In the 1928 novels, Plum Bun and Quicksand, Jessie Redmon Fauset and Nella Larsen, respectively, highlight fashion as an essential tool for passing, as well as the embodiment of their characters’ elusive identities.