Zora Neale Hurston | |
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 Hurston in c. 1935–43 | |
| Born | January 7, 1891 Notasulga, Alabama, U.S. |
| Died | January 28, 1960 (aged 69) Fort Pierce, Florida, U.S. |
| Education | |
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| Writing career | |
| Period | c. 1925–1950 |
| Literary movement | The Harlem Renaissance |
| Notable works | Mules and Men, Their Eyes Were Watching God |
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| Website | zoranealehurston |
Zora Neale Hurston (January 7, 1891[1]: 17 [2]: 5 – January 28, 1960) was an American writer, anthropologist, folklorist, and documentary filmmaker. She portrayed racial struggles in the early-20th-century American South and published research on Hoodoo and Caribbean Vodou.[3] The most popular of her four novels is Their Eyes Were Watching God, published in 1937. She also wrote more than 50 short stories, plays, an autobiography, ethnographies, and many essays.
Hurston was born in Notasulga, Alabama, and moved with her family to Eatonville, Florida in 1894. She later used Eatonville as the setting for many of her stories. In her early career, Hurston conducted anthropological and ethnographic research as a scholar at Barnard College and Columbia University.[4] She had an interest in African-American and Caribbean folklore, and how these contributed to the community's identity.
She also wrote about contemporary issues in the black community and became a central figure of the Harlem Renaissance. Her short satires, drawing from the African-American experience and racial division, were published in anthologies such as The New Negro and Fire!![5] After moving back to Florida, Hurston wrote and published her literary anthology on African-American folklore in North Florida, Mules and Men (1935), and her first three novels: Jonah's Gourd Vine (1934); Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937); and Moses, Man of the Mountain (1939).[6] Also published during this time was Tell My Horse: Voodoo and Life in Haiti and Jamaica (1938), documenting her research on rituals in Jamaica and Haiti.
Hurston's works concerned both the African-American experience and her struggles as an African-American woman. Her novels went relatively unrecognized by the literary world for decades. In 1975, fifteen years after Hurston's death, interest in her work was revived after author Alice Walker published an article, "In Search of Zora Neale Hurston" (later retitled "Looking for Zora"), in Ms. magazine.[7][8]
In 2001, Hurston's manuscript Every Tongue Got to Confess, a collection of folktales gathered in the 1920s, was published after being discovered in the Smithsonian archives. Her nonfiction book Barracoon: The Story of the Last "Black Cargo" (2018), about the life of Cudjoe Lewis (Kossola), one of the last survivors of slaves brought illegally to the US in 1860, was also published posthumously.
- ^ Boyd, Valerie (2003). Wrapped in Rainbows: The Life of Zora Neale Hurston. New York: Scribner. ISBN 978-0-684-84230-1.
- ^ Hurston, Lucy Anne (2004). Speak, so you can speak again : the life of Zora Neale Hurston (First ed.). New York: Doubleday. ISBN 0-385-49375-4.
- ^ Trefzer, Annette (2000). "Possessing the Self: Caribbean Identities in Zora Neale Hurston's Tell My Horse". African American Review. 34 (2): 299–312. doi:10.2307/2901255. JSTOR 2901255.
- ^ Flynn, Elisabeth; Deasy, Caitlin; Ruah, Rachel. "The Upbringing and Education of Zora Neale Hurston". social.rollins.edu. Archived from the original on September 25, 2017. Retrieved June 21, 2017.
- ^ Carpio, Glenda R.; Sollors, Werner (January 2, 2011). "The Newly Complicated Zora Neale Hurston". The Chronicle of Higher Education. ISSN 0009-5982. Archived from the original on June 26, 2017. Retrieved June 21, 2017.
- ^ Rae, Brianna (February 19, 2016). "Black History Profiles – Zora Neale Hurston". The Madison Times. Archived from the original on March 8, 2022. Retrieved May 10, 2020.
- ^ Miller, Monica (December 17, 2012). "Archaeology of a Classic". News & Events. Barnard College. Archived from the original on July 15, 2014. Retrieved June 14, 2014.
- ^ Sarkar, Sohel (January 7, 2021). "9 Fascinating Facts About Zora Neale Hurston". Mental Floss. Archived from the original on October 15, 2022. Retrieved June 6, 2022.