“Grace Paley: 'Passings' between African American and Jewish Cultural Paradigms”

The essay shows how Grace Paley creatively deals with paradigms such as passing, invisibility and the use of irony, that work as devices for claiming subjectivity, common both to African American and Jewish literature. On the one hand she considers the tragedy of the historical experience of the African American and Jewish people, on the other hand she seems to suggest that literary devices such as passing, invisibility and irony can also be significant for the personal experience of the individual, as well, because all the questions are connected, and the crucial point is that of the human rights. Nowadays we are used to recognizing, although not always accepting, the claiming of subjectivity by oppressed groups, such as ethnic minorities or other non-minority groups, like women, with whom however they share an experience of oppression; nevertheless we resist recognizing the claiming of subjectivity on the part of more marginalized groups, outside the production cycle, such as children, the sick, the elderly and mothers. Paley refers to them directly.