Planting the Seeds: The Role of Zora Neale Hurston in the Development of a Distinct African-American Feminist Voice
Author:
Michelle Nadine McFarland
Degree Date:
August, 1991
Committee Chairperson:
William E. Cross, Jr.
Call Number:
Thesis DT 3.5 1991 M47843
Description:
vi, 95 leaves; 29 cm.
Abstract:
This thesis examines the evolution of the Black feminist literary tradition and the significance Zora Neale Hurston is accorded in its origin.
The images of Black women in nineteenth and early twentieth century literary texts, written by Black women, are analyzed to show how Black women depicted themselves prior to Hurston. This followed by a close reading of Their Eyes Were Watching God, which sets the stage for the concluding chapter in which Hurston not only is viewed as link a between the literary past and present but is determined to be perhaps the most important figure in the forging of the self-conscious African-American heroine.