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The Four Novels of Zora Neale Hurston
Most critics and practicing academics teach Zora Neale Hurston as part of the Harlem Renaissance. Actually, Hurston’s career as a trained social scientist, writer, and reporter spans much longer. Her longer works, her novel and autobiography, were not published during the Renaissance at all. I give a summary of her four novels.
Who Was Zora Neale Hurston as an Artist?
Zora Neale Hurston is traditionally read and taught as a member of the Harlem Renaissance. In a sense, she was. But in many ways, she was not.
While most of us know Hurston as a Renaissance author, Reader, let’s look at who Hurston really was as an artist. First of all, she was one of the few members of what she called “the niggerati” who was born in the rural South. She was born in the small town of Notasulga, Alabama, but raised and nourished in a small, all-Black town, Eatonville, right outside of Orlando, Florida. Yes, Eatonville still exists and yes, it is still all-Black. Learn more about the town here: https://www.townofeatonville.org/about-eatonville
Furthermore, Hurston wrote in rural Black English, and for this, she was harshly criticized by her male cohorts. Some even accused her of contributing to the popularity of minstrelsy. It is very disturbing that Richard Wright, who was a nascent writer when…
