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Zora Neale Hurston: Suggested Reading
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by Karen Vrotsos
Educator, Writer
New York, New York
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More About Zora Neale Hurston...
Supplementary Sources
The following titles may be of interest to those studying the works of Zora Neale Hurston.
Titles
Awkward, Michael, ed. New Essays on "Their Eyes Were Watching God." New York: Cambridge University Press, 1990.
Good collection of mostly readable, informative essays that mainly view Hurston's work in perspective of politics of gender, race, and ethnicity.
Bloom, Harold, ed. Zora Neale Hurston: Modern Critical Views. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1986.
Good collection of writings about Hurston and her major works; includes first-hand character sketches of Hurston, criticism, and essays by Alice Walker and Robert E. Hemenway.
Boyd, Valerie. Wrapped in Rainbows: The Life of Zora Neale Hurston. New York: Scribner, 2002.
This latest, well-received biography gives a contemporary view of Hurston's achievements.
Croft, Robert W. A Zora Neale Hurston Companion. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 2002.
A good, comprehensive sourcebook.
Cronin, Gloria L., ed. Critical Essays on Zora Neale Hurston. New York: G. K. Hall, 1998.
An excellent source for contemporaneous reviews of Hurston's major works. Includes Richard Wright's stinging review of Their Eyes Were Watching God; also includes some current essays.
Gates, Henry Louis, Jr. The Signifying Monkey: A Theory of African-American Literary Criticism. New York: Oxford University Press, Inc., 1988.
In this seminal work of African-American literary theory, Gates explores black oral and written traditions of signifying (i.e., the use of a double voice or double meanings for varied purposes, including trickery, play, truth telling, verbal sparring, indirection, and critique), linking African traditions to contemporary African-American fiction. His chapter on Their Eyes Were Watching God connects Hurtson's representations of black oral tradition to Janie's search for identity and her development of a speaking voice.
Gates, Henry Louis, Jr. and K. A. Appiah, eds. Zora Neale Hurston: Critical Perspectives Past and Present. New York: Amistad Press, 1993.
Excellent collection ranging from contemporaneous reviews to essays focusing on language, dialect, race, and gender.
Hemenway, Robert E. Zora Neale Hurston: A Literary Biography. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1977.
Still the reigning biography of Hurston. A balanced investigation of her life, relationships, work, and critical reception. Rich in the use of primary sources.
Holloway, Karla. The Character of the Word: The Texts of Zora Neale Hurston. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1987.
An analysis of Hurston's use of dialect as "the vehicle to express the complex consciousness of her people" (115) to embody Hurston's own cultural traditions and the folklore she collected.
Howard, Lillie P. Zora Neale Hurston. Boston: Twayne Press, 1980.
Good brief biography and helpful critical introduction to Hurston's major works.
Hurston, Zora Neale. Every Tongue Got to Confess: Negro Folktales from the Gulf States. Edited by Carla Kaplan. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 2001.
The third volume of collected tales. A stunning collection with foreword by John Edgar Wideman.
Jones, Sharon L. Rereading the Harlem Renaissance: Race, Class, and Gender in the Fiction of Jessie Fauset, Zora Neale Hurston, and Dorothy West. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 2002.
Situates Hurston in the context of the Harlem Renaissance, seeing within her folk aesthetic significant critiques of racial, class, and gender oppression.
Kaplan, Carla, ed. Zora Neale Hurston: A Life in Letters. New York: Doubleday, 2002.
Hurston's correspondence with literary luminaries and other key players in her life. Witty and illuminating, giving fascinating views of a female artist trying to live life on her own terms.
Meisenhelder, Susan. Hitting a Straight Lick with a Crooked Stick: Race and Gender in the Work of Zora Neale Hurston. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 1999.
Examines Hurston's treatment of race and gender in light of her historical context, considering the pressures of black writers' "double audience" (white and black), the demands of the publishing industry, and historical resistance to the subject of sexism.
Peters, Pearlie Mae Fisher. The Assertive Woman in Zora Neale Hurston's Fiction, Folklore, and Drama. New York: Garland Publishers, 1998.
Discusses assertive female characters in Hurston's writings, arguing that developing the power of speech is central to characters' self-revelation and to negotiating respect. Identifies the role of folk-speech (storytelling, figurative language) in the African-American female traditional use of creative language as a source of power, and the role of verbal dueling in the struggle for independence and equality to men.
Plant, Deborah G. Every Tub Must Sit on Its Own Bottom: The Philosophy and Politics of Zora Neale Hurston. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1995.
Traces Hurston's "philosophy of individualism" as evidenced in her published and unpublished writings. Tackles the problem of Hurston's complex self-identification and ambivalent race and gender politics. Sometimes a bit jargony, but insightful and not mired in idolatry.
Wall, Cheryl A. Zora Neale Hurston's "Their Eyes Were Watching God": A Casebook. Oxford University Press, 2000.
This collection of previously printed essays gives a good range of current critical viewpoints.
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