Dec 22, 2009

Their Eyes Were Watching God | The Confluence of Folklore, Feminism, and Black Self-Determination in Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God

Crabtree maintains that the close connection between the themes of feminist/black self-determination and traditional or folk material needs to be further explored.

Recent years have seen a renewal of interest in the work of Zora Neale Hurston marked by the publication of Robert Hemenway's 1977 biography and the anthology I Love Myself When I Am Laughing. Articles by Lloyd W. Brown, S. Jay Walker, and Mary Helen Washington discuss Hurston's best novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, in terms of its themes of feminism and black self-determination. An area that remains virtually untapped in Hurston criticism is the intimate connection between these themes and the folkloric themes and motifs which Hurston has embedded in her novel....