Understanding Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God: A Student Casebook to Issues, Sources, and Historical Documents

by Neal Lester

Overview

Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God highlights the vitality of African American culture. This casebook demonstrates how African Americans fashioned themselves individually and collectively to combat racism, classism, and sexism. With provocative documents that contextualize the complex issues of the novel, Lester provides an excellent resource for students and teachers first approaching the excitement and cultural flavor that define Hurston's novels.

The casebook is an encyclopedia of African American folk culture that simultaneously presents historical, political, and social commentary on the relationships between men and women and between blacks and whites in America. Documents include interviews with people living in the South at the time of the novel's publication, poetry, rap, folktales, and sermons. Also included are original materials on ebonics, minstrel songs, the blues tradition, the novel in theatrical and dance performance, and materials on Hurston's hometown of Eatonville, Florida.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780313302107
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	10/30/1999
Series:	The Greenwood Press "Literature in Context" Series
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	200
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 0.50(d)
Lexile:	1240L (what's this?)
Age Range:	14 - 17 Years

About the Author

NEAL A. LESTER is Professor of English at Arizona State University, where he teaches African American literature. He is the author of Ntozake Shange: A Critical Study of the Plays (1995), and has published on Alice Walker, Zora Neale Hurston, and Lonne Elder.

Table of Contents

Introduction
Selected Bibliography on Zora Neale Hurston
Literary Analysis
"Lords of Sounds and Lesser Things": The Role of Language
"Women and Chillun and Chickens and Cows": Male and Female Relations
"Find Out if They's White or Black": Race Relations
"Singing and Sobbing": The Blues Tradition
Index

Editorial Reviews

Readings shed light on Hurston's novel. They demonstrate how African Americans fashioned themselves individually and collectively to combat racism, classism, and sexism, and present historical, political, and social commentary on the relationships between men and women as well as between blacks and whites. Included are interviews with people living at the time of Hurston's novel's publication, poetry, folk tales, and sermons. The editor is a professor of English at Arizona State University. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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