Zora Neale Hurston (1891-1960)

Zora Neale Hurston(1891-1960)

Eatonvillen Born in 1891 inEatonville, Florida(first acknowledgedAfrican Americantownship in U.S.)

Educationn n n Attended HowardUniversityEarned a B.A. inAnthropology fromBarnard College in 1927Studied under famousColumbia Universityanthropologist FranzBoas for 2 years as agraduate student

Harlem Renaissancen n n n Harlem Renaissance infull swing when Hurstonis in New YorkFirst piece of fiction,“Spunk,” published inThe New Negroanthology in 1925Along with LangstonHughes and others,published literarymagazine “Fire!”“Niggerati”

Folklore Collectorn n After college, traveledthrough the Southcollected blackfolktales (late 1920’s)Went to Haiti on aGuggenheimFellowship to studyVoodoo (mid 1930’s)

White Patronagen n During this period(late 1920s-mid1930s), supported bya wealthy whitepatron of the arts,Charlotte OsgoodMasonControverseysurrounding Mason’spatronage

Mules and Menn Collection of AfricanAmerican folklorepublished in 1935

Their Eyesn n n Published in 1937Written quickly whileshe was living in HaitiPopular, butcontroversial

Use of Dialectn n n Black intellectual and writerJames Weldon Johnson arguedin 1923 that new black writersshould “break away from . . . thelimitations of Negro dialect.”Saw dialect as “an instrumentwith but two full stops, humorand pathos.”Nine years later, Johnsonasserts that “the passing oftraditional dialect as a mediumfor Negro poets is complete.”

Instructions for Negro Writers(George S. Schuyler, 1929)n n We will not accept any storiesthat are depressing, saddeningor gloomy. Our people haveenough troubles withoutreading about any. We wantthem to be interested, cheered,and buoyed up; comforted,gladdened, and made to laugh.Nothing that casts the leastreflection on contemporarymoral or sex standards will beallowed. Keep away from theerotic! Contributions must beclean and wholesome.

Instructions (cont.)n Stories must be swiftly moving, gripping theinterest and sweeping on to a climax. Theheroine should always be beautiful anddesirable, sincere and virtuous. The hero shouldbe of the he-man type, but not stiff, stereotyped,or vulgar. The villain should obviously be avillain and of the deepest-dyed variety: crafty,unscrupulous, suave, and resourcesful

Richard Wrightn In The New Masses, Richard Wrightwrote that the novel did for literaturewhat minstrel shows did for thetheater--made white folks laugh:. The sensory sweep of her novel carriesno theme, no message, no thought. In themain, her novel is not addressed to theNegro, but to a white audience whosechauvinistic tastes she knows how tosatisfy. She exploits that phase of Negrolife which is "quaint," the phase whichevokes a piteous smile on the lips of the"superior" race

Hurston/Wright Debaten Hurston opposed the sort of social realism used byWright--the idea that racism had reduced black people tobeings who only react to an omnipresent racialoppression, whose culture is “deprived” and whosepsyches are “pathological”

Hurston/Wright Debaten n Hurston believed that Wright stood at the center of “thesobbing school of Negrohood who hold that naturesomehow has given them a low down dirty deal”Wright found Hurston’s writing “counter-revolutionary”-didn’t depict evils of oppression and racism

Hurston/Wright Debaten n Hurston replied that she wrote novels, “not treatises onsociology”Declared her first novel a manifesto against the“arrogance” of whites assuming that “black lives aredefensive reactions to white actions”

Later Writingsn n Popular autobiography: DustTracks on a Road (1942)Four novels altogethern n n n n Jonah’s Gourd Vine (1934)Their Eyes (1937)Moses, Man of the Mountain(1939)Seraph on the Suwanee (1948)Two collections of folklore,numerous stories, plays

Later Yearsn n n During and afterWWII, difficult yearsLost popularity (partlybecause of herconservative politics)Worked as asubstitute teacher anda maid in the lastyears of her life

Later Years, cont.n n n Suffered a stroke inthe late fiftiesDied in a Floridawelfare home in 1960Buried in anunmarked grave

Hurston Revivaln n n Popularity revivedlargely through theefforts of Alice WalkerIn Search of OurMother’s Gardens(first published as aMs. Magazine essayin 1975)Hemenway biographycame out in 1977

Zora Neale Hurston (1891-1960) Eatonville ! Born in 1891 in Eatonville, Florida (first acknowledged . full swing when Hurston is in New York ! First piece of fiction, “Spunk,” published in The New Negro anthology in 1925 ! Along with Langston