The Cambridge Introduction to Zora Neale Hurston

Their Eyes Were Watching God is a key text in African Americanliterature. Its author Zora Neale Hurston has become an iconicfigure for her literary works and for her invaluable contributionto documenting elements of black folk culture in the rural southand in the Caribbean. This introductory book designed for studentsexplores Hurston"s artistic achievements and her unique character:her staunch individualism, her penchant for drama, her sometimescontroversial politics, her philosophical influences and her viewson gender relations. Lovalerie King explores Hurston"s life andanalyses her major works and short stories. Historical, social,political, and cultural contexts for Hurston"s life and work,including her key role in the development of the HarlemRenaissance, are set out. The book concludes with an overview ofthe reception of Hurston"s work, both in her lifetime and up to thepresent, as well as suggestions for further reading.