This thesis establishes parallel claims about how women’s autobiography as a genreintersects with fiction as a means to share an author’s opinions on issues of race, gender,class, and topics that the publishing industry deems ‘controversial’, using Zora Neale Hurston’s works Their Eyes Were Watching God and Dust Tracks on a Road as points of comparison. Throughout this thesis, I will show that Their Eyes Were Watching God is a novel that by virtue of its content is a political novel because of how it represents an overlooked demographic of people and the novel’s ripple effect on later black female writers as one of the first novels that celebrates black female joy. TEWWG does the work of literary representation that publishers did not allow DToaR to do because of the fear that the book would not sell as well if it included more of Hurston’s own political perspective. The second claim that I make is that TEWWG is first dismissed because of its lack of ‘seriousness’ in subject matter by Hurston’s peers, but its use of nature metaphors like the horizon and the tree and motifs like desire and dreams allow for issues of gender, race, class, and love to be discussed because they are shrouded in a literary image disguise.

'Making a Way Out of No Way"': Zora Neale Hurston"'s Hidden Discourse of Resistance"u201d explores how Hurston used techniques she derived from the trickster tradition of African American folk culture in her narratives in order to resist and undermine the racism of the dominant discourse found in popular literature published during her lifetime. Critics have condemned her perceived willingness to use racist stereotypes in her work in order to pander to a white reading audience. This project asserts that Hurston did, indeed, don a "u201cmask of minstrelsy"u201d to play into her reading public"'s often racist expectations in order to succeed as an academic and as a creative writer. At the same time, however, she crafted her narratives in a way that destabilized those expectations through use of sometimes subtle and sometimes blatant points of resistance. In this way, she was able to participate in a system that was rigged against her, as a woman and as an African American, by playing into the expectations of her audiences for economic and professional advantages while simultaneously undermining aspects of those expectations through rhetorical "u201cwinks,"u201d exaggeration, sarcasm, and other forms of humor that enabled her to stay true to her personal values. While other scholars have examined Hurston"'s discourse of resistance, this project takes a different approach by placing Hurston"'s material in relation to the publishing climate at the time. Chapter One examines Mules and Men in the context of the revisions Hurston made to her scholarly work to transform her collection of folktales into a cohesive book marketed to a popular reading audience. Chapter Two focuses on Hurston"'s often-maligned anthropological travel book, Tell My Horse, as it forms a counter-narrative to the sensational and surreal travelogue by William Seabrook, The Magic Island. Chapter Three analyzes Their Eyes Were Watching God alongside DuBose Heyward"'s Porgy to demonstrate how Hurston resists the dominant narrative of black womanhood by creating a strong and self-affirming female role model. / Elizabeth A. Kalos-Kaplan

My dissertation titled "Mambos, Priestesses, and Goddesses: Spiritual Healing Through Vodou in Black Women's Narratives of Haiti and New Orleans" reclaims the practice of Vodou as an integral African spiritual tradition through fiction by black women writers. I discuss how the examination of Vodou necessitates the revision of colonial history, serves as an impetus for reevaluating the literary representation of the black female migrant subject, and gives voice to communities silenced by systemic oppression. I parallel novels by contemporary women writers such as Erna Brodber, Jewell Parker Rhodes and Edwidge Danticat with Zora Neale Hurston's ethnographic research in the early twentieth century in order to examine how Vodou is utilized as a literary trope that challenges racist, stereotypical representations of African spirituality in American popular culture. It is also an examination of the shared socio-cultural history between Haiti and New Orleans that coincides with political and environmental changes. Although Vodou has been disparaged as primitive magic, my work demonstrates its profound social, cultural, and political significance; and its important transformations from a nineteenth-century practice to a twenty-first century strategy of survival.

The thesis aims to read Zora Neale Hurston¡¦s Their Eyes Were Watching God to discuss how and why the white male dominant society marginalizes and subordinates black women by means of silencing their voices, restricting their freedom to explore themselves and the world around them, and suppressing their recognition of their sexual desires and bodily needs. The black woman, or in a sense, the mule of the world, could not always do and act according to her own desire. Instead, they are required to keep silence whenever a community¡¦s voice (usually the male one) is generated and furthermore to play the secondary role as a good wife whose sole purpose in life is merely to meet her husbands¡¦ demands. On the one hand, black female body, which has always been brutally beaten, closely examined, and sexually exploited in the hands of white/black men, is the very site of white supremacy and male dominance. On the one hand, it also serves as an outlet for black men to vent the humiliation, anger and shame that they have suffered in the predominantly white America. The black woman, therefore, is doubly marginalized in terms of both her race and sex. In the first chapter of this thesis, I argue that Janie¡¦s disturbing silence is the inevitable result of her failure to find an ideal listener. In a male-centered society, not only is Janie denied a voice to articulate her desire, but she also fails to find an empathetic listener. Pheoby¡¦s ¡§hungry listening¡¨ unquestionably satisfies Janie¡¦s deep longing for self-revelation. Nonetheless, such a hungry audience is not always available even when a black woman chooses to voice her desire. Black female voice, in this respect, badly needs an ideal listener who is willing to keep his/her ears as well as heart open. The second chapter, moreover, engages with the major issues about why and how the heroine sets off on a quest for love and respect, freedom and possibilities. Janie, on the one hand, has to go to the far horizon not so much in time and space as in soul and spirit. That is, Janie must embark on a female quest to redefine herself aside from male definitions. On the other hand, Janie also brings back to the black community what she has experienced and learned in her self-fulfillment journey and thus enriches her community with her hard-won knowledge and discovery. Janie¡¦s journey from self-doubt to self-fulfillment, from silence to speech, I would like to suggest, will be continued by anyone who sincerely responds to her life story. The third chapter is concerned with the issues of black female body. In this chapter, I argue that black female body has always been the object of oppression and the target of male dominance and white supremacy. Nevertheless, if black female body could be the site on which the patriarchal law is inscribed, it could also be an agent to speak for what remains unspeakable; more crucially, it could also provide the female subject access to experience that which is both pleasured and pleasuring.

Thesis (M.A.)--Ohio State University, 1985. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 92-94). Available online via OhioLINK's ETD Center

In its simplest form, storytelling is the passing of information from one person to the next. When storytelling illuminates time, place and purpose, it is then able to entertain, comfort and transport any listener. As the keeper of the imagination, the storyteller has inspired me as a performer. After reading Zora Neale Hurston‘s Every Tongue Got to Confess, I found my single-defining connection to the art of storytelling. Halimuhfack ultimately became my thesis performance piece inspired by the folk tales from Every Tongue Got To Confess. The new theatre piece shares Hurston‘s folk tale the way it may have once been told; in its natural dialect, with the same active physical involvement as if sharing stories with friends. Together, the research of the folk tale, Hurston‘s anthropological studies, folk songs and narrative from her autobiography aided in the development of the performance piece. In developing this work, I discovered that Hurston‘s tales were extremely action-oriented and were ideally suited to use in my making of Halimuhfack.

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / A presente dissertação possui dois objetivos principais. O primeiro, presente na parte I, é analisar a construção identitária feminina da personagem principal da obra Their Eyes Were Watching God, de Zora Neale Hurston. Sendo assim, a primeira parte desta dissertação é composta de quatro capítulos, sendo que ao longo dos três primeiros, antes da discussão propriamente dita, o trabalho busca aproximar o leitor da discussão. Para isso, os três capítulos iniciais têm o intuito de deixar o leitor familiarizado primeiro com a autora, depois com suas obras e, por último, com o momento histórico vivido pelos Estados Unidos no período do movimento cultural afro-americano conhecido como Harlem Renaissance. O segundo objetivo deste trabalho é analisar a tradução da obra, Seus Olhos Viam Deus, para o português e, se possível, fazer sugestões para as encruzilhadas e obstáculos tradutórios que porventura tenham sido enfrentados pelo tradutor. Esta dissertação visa com isso apresentar soluções que possam ser utilizadas em futuras traduções de obras de escritoras afro-americanas para o português do Brasil. Portanto, para isso, a segunda e a terceira parte deste trabalho, compostas de mais três capítulos, trazem uma revisão sobre as teorias tradutórias recentes e, em perspectiva inovadora, destacam pontos a serem abordados na discussão / The present dissertation has two main goals. The first, in part I, is to analyze the construction of the female identity of the main character of the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston. Therefore, four chapters compose the first part of this work. In the first three, before the discussion, the text tries to bring the readers closer to the discussion still to come. In order to do this, these initial chapters aim to make the reader more familiar with the author, then with her work, and, last but not least, with the historical moment in the United States during the period of the African-American cultural movement known as the Harlem Renaissance. The second goal is to analyze the translation of the novel, Seus Olhos Viam Deus, to Portuguese and, if possible, to make suggestions for the translation crossroads and obstacles that the translator might have faced. By doing this, this dissertation aims to present solutions that may be used in future translations to Brazilian Portuguese of works by African-American writers. Therefore, the parts II and III of this work, which are composed by three more chapters, bring a literary review about recent translation theories and, through an innovative perspective, detach a few points which are going to be subsequently discussed.

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / A presente dissertação possui dois objetivos principais. O primeiro, presente na parte I, é analisar a construção identitária feminina da personagem principal da obra Their Eyes Were Watching God, de Zora Neale Hurston. Sendo assim, a primeira parte desta dissertação é composta de quatro capítulos, sendo que ao longo dos três primeiros, antes da discussão propriamente dita, o trabalho busca aproximar o leitor da discussão. Para isso, os três capítulos iniciais têm o intuito de deixar o leitor familiarizado primeiro com a autora, depois com suas obras e, por último, com o momento histórico vivido pelos Estados Unidos no período do movimento cultural afro-americano conhecido como Harlem Renaissance. O segundo objetivo deste trabalho é analisar a tradução da obra, Seus Olhos Viam Deus, para o português e, se possível, fazer sugestões para as encruzilhadas e obstáculos tradutórios que porventura tenham sido enfrentados pelo tradutor. Esta dissertação visa com isso apresentar soluções que possam ser utilizadas em futuras traduções de obras de escritoras afro-americanas para o português do Brasil. Portanto, para isso, a segunda e a terceira parte deste trabalho, compostas de mais três capítulos, trazem uma revisão sobre as teorias tradutórias recentes e, em perspectiva inovadora, destacam pontos a serem abordados na discussão / The present dissertation has two main goals. The first, in part I, is to analyze the construction of the female identity of the main character of the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston. Therefore, four chapters compose the first part of this work. In the first three, before the discussion, the text tries to bring the readers closer to the discussion still to come. In order to do this, these initial chapters aim to make the reader more familiar with the author, then with her work, and, last but not least, with the historical moment in the United States during the period of the African-American cultural movement known as the Harlem Renaissance. The second goal is to analyze the translation of the novel, Seus Olhos Viam Deus, to Portuguese and, if possible, to make suggestions for the translation crossroads and obstacles that the translator might have faced. By doing this, this dissertation aims to present solutions that may be used in future translations to Brazilian Portuguese of works by African-American writers. Therefore, the parts II and III of this work, which are composed by three more chapters, bring a literary review about recent translation theories and, through an innovative perspective, detach a few points which are going to be subsequently discussed.

Thèse numérisée par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal.

O presente trabalho de doutorado focaliza as construções de feminilidade negra no conto não publicado \"Under The Bridge\", de Zora Neale Hurston assim como os já publicados \"Sweat\", \"Spunk\" e \"The Gilded Six-Bits\" em comparação com \"Roselily\", \"Really, Doesn\'t Crime Pay?\", \"Coming Apart\" e \"Porn\", da autora contemporânea Alice Walker. Ao supor que Alice Walker \'significa\' ou \'relê\' o trabalho de Hurston, que escreveu durante a época da Renascença no Harlem, a tese tem como objetivo investigar os elos de ligação entre as duas escritoras, focalizando a maneira pela qual suas protagonistas femininas contestam ou aceitam os parâmetros determinantes do \"verdadeiro culto de feminilidade\". Conclui-se que a apresentação das personagens femininas pelas escritoras negras simbolicamente questiona a representação da sexualidade e racismo como uma tentativa de tornar visível o processo de libertação das amarras da sociedade americana no momento de cada produção literária, contribuindo desse modo para o desenvolvimento da crítica literária negra. Na introdução desse trabalho, um panorama sobre o desenvolvimento da escrita por mulheres negras é apresentado, considerando-se leitores não pertencentes ao contexto cultural norte-americano, especialmente pelo fato da tese ser desenvolvida no Brasil. Portanto, essa seção focaliza alguns aspectos sobre a vida de Zora Neale Hurston e Alice Walker, assim como os fatores históricos, sociais e ideológicos que influenciaram a formação dessas autoras. No primeiro capítulo, dedicado à análise dos contos de Hurston, é essencial entender como a violência psicológica cometida contra as personagens femininas por seus parceiros é denunciada no gênero do conto, já que a tradicional dicotomia dominação masculina e subordinação feminina é perpetuada. Embora Hurston não desenvolva protagonistas autônomas e independentes, a escritora outorga o poder a essas personagens por meio da ligação com as raízes culturais. O capítulo divide-se em três momentos: o espaço do lar nas relações matrimoniais, o espaço cósmico/ simbólico na constituição das personagens e o espaço da linguagem no uso do inglês negro vernacular como meio de afirmação. O segundo capítulo traz a análise dos contos de Alice Walker como \"Roselily\" e \"Really, Doesn\'t Crime Pay? , inseridos na coletânea In Love & Trouble- Stories of Black Women e \"Coming Apart\" e \"Porn\", da coletânea You Can\'t Keep a Good Woman Down. O capítulo demonstra a agência das protagonistas e a maneira pela qual as opressões sofridas por instituições como a família, o casamento, os meios de comunicação por meio das imagens de revistas pornográficas e os estereótipos criados pela tradição branca limitam as possibilidades da agência feminina. Dessa forma, a questão da agência mostra-se relacionada às identidades negociadas a partir do momento em que as normas de feminilidade são (des) construídas. Diferentemente do primeiro capítulo em que as vozes de Vangie, Delia Jones, Lena e Missie May se inter-cruzam na análise, optou-se aqui por uma divisão temática. Logo, \"Papéis de Gênero no Espaço das Relações Matrimoniais\" e \"Questionando Identidades\" referem-se aos contos \"Roselily\" e \"Really, Doesn\'t Crime Pay?\" Os contos que abordam a questão da pornografia, \"Coming Apart\" e \"Porn\", são trabalhados nos itens: \"Reificação das Mulheres\", \"O Espaço Pornográfico\" e \"Tornando-se Sujeitos\" No terceiro capítulo verificam-se as diferenças de agência feminina em resposta aos parâmetros de feminilidade negra assim como analisam-se as estratégias narrativas usadas por ambas escritoras. De início, os fundamentos teóricos de Harold Bloom sobre a \'angústia da influência\' e os escritos feministas sobre a tradição literária das mulheres a partir do século XIX abrem caminhos para o trabalho crítico de \"significação\" proposto por Henry Louis Gates. No contexto negro, significar sugere a repetição do passado, mas com a inserção de novos elementos. Com base nessa teoria, o capítulo estabelece Hurston como a pioneira no desenvolvimento da tradição da escrita negra feminina ao relacioná-la com sua contemporânea Alice Walker. Ao utilizar teorias do multiculturalismo crítico propostas por Gates e Homi Bhabha e do dialogismo de Mikhail Bakhtin, o capítulo considera a desconstrução do signo negro, a transformação dos sujeitos da cultura no processo de (não) desestabilização dos papéis de feminilidade negra e propõe uma classificação acerca dos tipos de agência segundo os postulados de lingüistas-antropólogos. No início desse capítulo, assim como nos anteriores, um breve resumo dos principais tópicos a serem abordados é apresentado bem como uma conclusão parcial. Em considerações finais, as principais questões suscitadas no decorrer do trabalho são retomadas. O processo de significação em que Walker revisita a obra de Hurston aponta para as distintas caracterizações de suas respectivas personagens no gênero de contos. Nesse sentido, é possível pensar na multiplicidade de representações da mulher negra e suas especificidade no processo de libertação das amarras opressoras da sociedade excludente. / This doctoral research analyzes from a Brazilian perspective the constructions of black womanhood in Zora Neale Hurston\'s unpublished short-story \"Under the Bridge\" and published short stories \"Sweat\", \"Spunk\", and \"The Gilded Six-Bits\". The Hurston stories are compared to \"Roselily\", \"Really, Doesn\'t Crime Pay?\", \"Coming Apart\" and \"Porn\", written by the contemporary author Alice Walker. Taking as a starting point that Alice Walker\'s narratives \'signify\' on the work of Hurston, who wrote during The Harlem Renaissance (1920), this thesis aims to investigate the threads that connect both writers by focusing on the ways in which their female protagonists question or accept the parameters of \"the cult of true womanhood\". The conclusion shows that the portrayal of black women characters symbolically questions representations of sexuality and racism in an attempt to make visible the process of liberation from the constraints of American society at the time of each author\'s literary production. Thus the authors contribute to the development of black literary criticism as well as to the tradition of black women writers.