New Essays on Their Eyes Were Watching God

After years of neglect, Zora Neale Hurston''s "Their Eyes Were Watching God" has now achieved a position of prominence in the American literary canon. In the introduction to this volume Michael Awkward provides an overview of the critical reception of Hurston''s novel from the largely dismissive reviews that accompanied its publication in 1937, to factors that helped revive interest in Hurston in the late 1960s, to the recent recognition of "Their Eyes Were Watching God" as an important American novel. The other essays in the volume discuss Hurston''s sophisticated use of black folklore, the autobiographical resonances in the novel, Hurston''s definition of the relationship between black artists and the Afro-American masses, and the usefulness of feminist modes of inquiry. The collection offers suggestive means by which to approach Hurson''s compelling exploration of a black woman''s extended search for self and community.