Quicksand (Penguin Twentieth-Century Classics)
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Premium Content Improper Politics: Quicksand and Black Female Sexuality

By Adrian Jermaine Smith - January 13, 2006

The entertainment of a Harlem cabaret hypnotizes Helga Crane, the protagonist of Nella Larsen's Quicksand. She loses herself in the "sudden streaming rhythm" and delights in the sexually suggestive moves of the dancers. Helga is "blown out, ripped out, beaten out by the joyous, wild, murky orchestra" in a moment suggestive of a sexual climax. But…

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