Zora Neale Picture for US Postal Stamp 2003
![Other Works • • Jonah’s Gourd Vine, 1934 [1991] Mules and Men, 1935 Their](https://slidetodoc.com/presentation_image_h/91717415b8367cf4ccf6a01b46723a75/image-6.jpg "Other Works • • Jonah’s Gourd Vine, 1934 [1991] Mules and Men, 1935 Their")
- Slides: 12
Zora Neale Picture for US Postal Stamp, 2003 Hurston
Early Life • 1891 – 1960 • I “grew like a gourd and yelled bass like a gator. ” • Notasulga, Alabama • Eatonville, Florida • Father: carpenter, preacher, mayor • Mother: died 1904 “jump at the sun. ”
Out in the World • At 13: taken out of school • At 16: traveling theater company
Education and Career • • Howard University (1920) Harlem Renaissance 1927: founded Fire! Barnard College Columbia University Anthropology and Folklore Teacher, librarian, and domestic
Work for Benefactor • Mrs. R. Osgood Mason of Park Ave. New York • Monthly allowance for 5 years to collect folklore of the South • Criticized for flattering letters
Other Works • • Jonah’s Gourd Vine, 1934 [1991] Mules and Men, 1935 Their Eyes Were Watching God 1937 Tell My Horse, 1938 Moses, Man of the Mountain, 1939 Dust Tracks on a Road, 1942 Seraph on the Suwanee, 1948
Early Critical Reception of Their Eyes Were Watching God • Sterling Brown: It does not “depict the harsher side of black life in the South” • Richard Wright: It “carries no theme, no message, no thought, ” but is like a minstrel show. • Benjamin Brawley: “Her interest. . . Is not in solving problems, the chief concern being with individuals. ” Richard Wright
Affirmative View of African American Culture • But I am not tragically colored. There is no great sorrow damned up in my soul, nor lurking behind my eyes. I do not mind at all. I do not belong to the sobbing school of Negrohood who hold that nature somehow has given them a lowdown dirty deal and whose feelings are hurt about it. . No, I do not weep at the world—I am too busy sharpening my oyster knife. --“How It Feels to Be Colored Me” • Politically conservative in 1950 s. • Opposed 1954 Supreme Court desegregation decision
Last Years • • Arrested in 1948 Solitary retirement in Florida Died in a welfare home Buried in an unmarked grave • A Genius of the South: 1901 [sic]---1960. Novelist, Folklorist, Anthropologist
Current Critical Issues • Alice Walker: “There is no book more important to me. ” • Female bonding self-definition • Questions about “voice” • Role of folklore: magic of 3’s, tale of courtly love, symbols that aid in retelling
Bibliography Crabtree, Claire. “The Confluence of Folklore, Feminism and Black Self-Determination in Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God. ” The Southern Literary Journal, 17: 2 (54 -66) Jordan, Jennifer. “Feminist Fantasies: Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God. ” Tulsa Studies in Women&apos’s Literature. 7: 1 (105 -17). Saunders, James Robert. “Womanism as the Key to Understanding Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God and Alice Walker’s The Color Purple. ” The Hollins Critic. 25: 4 (1 -11). Washington, Mary Helen. Foreword. Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston. New York: Perennial Classics, 1998. -----. Introduction. I Love Myself When I Am Laughing. Alice Walker, Ed. New York: The Feminist Press, 1979. Zora Neale Hurston. Biography. Contemporary Literary Criticism. Literature Resource Center, January 2003. <http: //www. galenet. com> Images: http: //www. americanplacetheatre. org/stage/index. php? option=com_content&task=view&id=47&Itemid=5 7 http: //www. loc. gov/wiseguide/jan 04/zora. html http: //www. nndb. com/people/237/000084982/ http: //xroads. virginia. edu/~MA 01/Grand-Jean/Hurston/Chapters/patron. html
• facultystaff. richmond. edu/~rreilly/Women /Zora. .
