| -- End Ad Box ---> | | | | Negro life; she also dramatized herself. Her |
| Zora Neale Hurston (1891—1960) grew up | | | | contemporaries believed Hurston to be ten years |
| in Eatonville, Florida, the "first incorporated black | | | | younger than what she was. Her ability to pass |
| community in America" (Wall 376). Perhaps her | | | | off her age exhibits her extraordinary skill in |
| isolation from white racism and discrimination | | | | 'acting.' She had the ability to pass back and forth |
| during her childhood and her mother’s | | | | between high and low culture, black or white. I do |
| encouragement to "jump at da sun" contributed | | | | not mean to imply that she could 'pass' for white, |
| to her strong sense of self and her audacity in | | | | or that she did so. I mean that she could adapt |
| crossing racial, social, and gendered boundaries | | | | herself to the manners of high society, middle |
| (Wall 376). Indeed, in exploring Hurston's life and | | | | class society, or working class society with no |
| experiences, it is difficult to believe that Hurston | | | | apparent difficulty. Wall describes many instances |
| herself discerned any boundaries attempting to be | | | | of Hurston's crossing boundaries, too many to |
| foisted on her. Hurston describes her literary | | | | narrate here. But the anecdotes of Hurston's |
| aesthetics as: | | | | personal life clearly show she is unafraid, and what |
| Every phase of Negro life is highly dramatized. No | | | | is more, she is unabashed to "go where no |
| matter how joyful or how sad the case there is | | | | [woman] has gone before" {Wall} |
| sufficient poise for drama. Everything is acted out. | | | | Tragically for Hurston, once the Negro was 'out of |
| Unconsciously for the most part of course. There | | | | vogue', she experienced, as did most of her |
| is an impromptu ceremony always ready for | | | | fellow artists, a swift decline in fortune. Although |
| every hour of life. No little moment passes | | | | Hurston continued to write until her death, she |
| unadorned. (Wall 163) | | | | largely went unpublished. She ended her life where |
| In her four novels, Jonah's Gourd Vine (1934), | | | | she began: in domestic service. At the time of her |
| Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937), Moses, | | | | death in 1960, none of her works were in print; |
| Man of the Mountain (1939), and Seraph on the | | | | likewise with Jessie Fauset and Nella Larsen (Wall |
| Suwanee (1948); in her two works of | | | | 204). The only person of the Harlem Renaissance |
| ethnography, Mules and Men (1935) and Tell My | | | | who "truly enjoyed a lengthy career" was |
| Horse (1938); a memoir, Dust Tracks on a Road | | | | Langston Hughes (Wintz 230). |
| (1942); and "more than fifty published short | | | | Bibliography |
| stories, essays, and plays" Hurston worked to | | | | Wall, Cheryl A. Women of the Harlem |
| recreate "the sense of drama and will to adorn" | | | | Renaissance. Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, |
| that she found in the language of African | | | | 1995. |
| Americans (Wall). | | | | Wintz, Cary D. Black Culture and the Harlem |
| But Hurston did not limit herself to dramatizing | | | | Renaissance. Houston: Rice University Press, 1988. |