1. Context for Their Eyes Were Watching God
By Zora Neal Hurston

2. Historical Context 1865 - Slaves freed; end of Civil War
Late 1800s, early 1900s - South: Jim Crow laws, sharecropping, segregation, lynching, KKK, racism
The Great Migration
Early 1900s - North: unemployment, immigration, racism
1926: W.E.B. Dubois’ “Criteria of Negro Art”
Late 1920s – early 1930s - Harlem Renaissance
Their Eyes Were Watching God

3. Battling Racism with the “Negro Uplift Program”
Early 1900s: Segregation, social issues, racism
W.E.B. Dubois - “Criteria of Negro Art”
“Uplift program”
African Americans only portrayed only as model citizens

4. Harlem Renaissance Great Migration New Negro Movement
Urban areas in Northern
U.S.
Centered in Harlem
Artistic and intellectual
flowering of
African-American culture

5. Harlem Renaissance: Big Names
Langston Hughes, Richard Wright, James Baldwin, Countee Cullen
Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Dizzy Gillespie

6. Harlem Renaissance Response to Negro Uplift Program
Instead of only representing Africans as model citizens, expose racial oppression
Or, completely rejected Uplift Program
FIRE!! - represented the life of prostitutes, etc. (Hurston)

7. Hurston’s Controversial Work
FIRE!! sold poorly
Some thought it represented African Americans negatively
Used dialect, represented Southern communities as she found them, and depicted female sexuality

8. Their Eyes Were Watching God
Published 1937
Mixed reviews
Harshly criticized by some
Uneducated characters
Dialect
Lacked serious social criticism?

9. Wright’s Review of Their Eyes
In Richard Wright’s review of Their Eyes he states the following:
That the book lacks a “sharp analysis of the social background”
That the book lacks “a basic idea or theme that lends itself to significant interpretation”
That “Miss Hurston seems to have no desire whatever to move in the direction of serious fiction ”

10. Dialect in Literature Dialect in literature: unsophisticated?
Dialect - a form of a language that is used by a particular group of the language's speakers and that is distinguished by differences in vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation

11. The Debate over Dialect: Countee Cullen vs. Langston Hughes
Harlem’s 2 most prominent poets
Cullen rejected the use of black dialect in his poetry
Hughes used it, especially in his “jazz poems”
Cullen harshly critical of
Hughes

12. These Four Writers on Dialect
Cullen: no
Hughes: yes
Wright: no
Hurston: yes

13. Standard English Standard English –
(also known as Standard Written English or SWE)
- the form of English most widely accepted as being clear and proper

14. Accent Dialect v. Accent
Accent – a difference in pronunciation among different forms of a language
Dialect includes accent but also includes vocabulary and grammar

15. “Sometimes, I feel discriminated against, but it does not make me angry. It merely astonishes me. How can any deny themselves the pleasure of my company? It's beyond me.” ~Zora Neale Hurston