Eyes on Zora Neal Hurston
RSSVicki Reutter, Curriculum Connections -- School Library Journal, 10/20/2009
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Enjoy this collection of multimedia materials on Zora Neale Hurston's books
All eyes are on the life and legacy of author Zora Neale Hurston, as January 2010 marks the 50th anniversary of her death. While most curriculum studies focus on her groundbreaking novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, and her influence during the Harlem Renaissance, Hurston is also widely recognized for a larger body of work that includes studies of African-American folklore gathered in the turpentine factories and sawmills, mines, and bars near her hometown of Eatonville, FL.
The video, Zora’s Roots (PBS, 2008), portrays a young girl with wanderlust who was told by her mother to “jump at the sun!” As a child, Hurston soaked up the stories and songs shared by neighbors gathered on porches, and later won a number of writing contests that provided a ticket to Howard University. From there, the young woman became Barnard College’s first African-American student. As a student, she won Guggenheim Fellowships to travel to Haiti and Jamaica, but returned to Florida, where she once held a “lying contest” to gather the best local tall tales.
Vividly photographed, the documentary incorporates live action and archival photos of Hurston’s southern roots and the exotic locations where she participated in boar hunts and voodoo practices. Despite her early, remarkable accomplishments, the writer spent her later years working as a maid and died in a welfare home.
In the film, several actresses play Hurston as she ages, and the program incorporates lines from many works and recorded short interludes of her voice. Interviews with notables such as Alice Walker, discuss her fertile imagination and way of “painting emotion with words.” Top-notch video production makes this a cinematic treat.
Sharon Jones’s Critical Companion to Zora Neale Hurston (Facts On File, 2009) digs deeply into her plays, fiction, poetry, folklore collections, and memoir. Most attention is paid to four novels: Jonah’s Gourd Vine; Their Eyes Were Watching God; Moses, Man of the Mountain; and Seraph on the Suwanee. Though she was once criticized by her contemporary Richard Wright for writing stories that held no message or “shout for justice,” the companion suggests Hurston’s writings are nuanced, centering on multifaceted characters, allegorical language, engaging dialogue, and cultural respect. Thurston’s once defensive retort, “I am not tragically colored,” speaks to an affinity and appreciation for the everyday lives of ordinary people, evident not only in her characters and themes, but in the way she lived.
A short biography and essays on related people and places will help students put her life and work in historical context. Both Zora’s Roots and Critical Companion to Zora Neale Hurston will draw attention to the writer’s valuable and oft-overlooked contribution to Southern oral tradition, equally relevant to literature and African-American studies.
Enjoy this collection of multimedia materials on Zora Neale Hurston's books
