Zora Neale Hurston

Yvonne Johnson (Central Missouri State University)

Ed. by Emory Elliott, University of California, Riverside
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 3.2.5: African American Writing and Culture of the United States.
Vol. editors: Sofia Ahlberg (Uppsala University), Philathia Bolton (University of Akron), Patrick Chura (University of Akron), J. Michael Duvall (College of Charleston), Emory Elliott (University of California, Riverside), A Yemisi Jimoh (University of Massachusetts Amherst), Stephen E. Meats (Pittsburg State University), Tony Papanikolas (San Jose State University)

Dates

Born 7 Jan 1891
Died 28 Jan 1960
Activity 1921-1952

Places

Born in United States
Active in United States; Haiti

Cultural Identities

African American

Activities

Primary

Anthropologist
Autobiographer
Novelist

Other

Playwright / Dramatist

Resources

Hurston's Works

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In her introduction to

Dust Tracks on a Road

(1942), Maya Angelou states: “It is difficult, if not impossible, to find and touch the real Zora Neale Hurston” (xii). Hurston’s life has been surrounded by questions and controversy, and many of these questions, especially about her adult life, are not answered in her autobiography,

Dust Tracks on a Road.

Hurston’s autobiography is contained in three volumes: her “official” autobiography,

Dust Tracks on a Road

; her famous anthropological work,

Mules and Men

; and her most famous novel,

Their Eyes Were Watching God.

Her masterpiece,

Their Eyes Were Watching God,

is the first self-conscious effort by an American ethnic writer to simultaneously subvert patriarchal discourse and to give voice to women of color.

Zora Neale Hurston was

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2654 words

Citation: Johnson, Yvonne. "Zora Neale Hurston". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 04 March 2005 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=2272, accessed 03 December 2024.]

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