Power And Dignity In Folklore

Zora Neale Hurston, a writer, folklorist and anthropologist, can be considered a productive writer, for her works contain essays, short stories, plays, novels and anthropological works. In her later years, she and her works were forgotten by the world, till Alice Walker rediscovered her in the1970s. Hurston, as an expert in black folklore, integrated the black folklore into her novels. Though from the1970s to now, many researches have been done about Hurston and her works, we can find new perspectives to study, because her works embrace tremendous information.In this thesis, by close reading and text analysis, the author analyzes the representations of the black folklore in this novel, the reasons why Hurston consciously employed such a great deal of black folklore and the significance of the black folklore for the black folks and the black community. The black folklore, which contains the African American Vernacular English, the oral tradition, music and dance, black sermons and the Hoodoo belief, plays an important role in the black people’s life. Hurston consciously integrated the black folkloric materials that she collected in the South with her literary creation. For Hurston grew up in the all-black town, and was immersed in the thick black culture and traditions, which made her know well the black folklore. When she entered Barnard College, she studied anthropology with the famous anthropologist Franz Boas and realized profoundly the values of the black folklore. In addition, the Harlem Renaissance provided Hurston a platform to show her literary gift, and the popularity of the black folklore during this period made her determine to promote the black folklore. However, she had to receive the patronage from the white because of her short of money, which caused restrictions on her literary creation. Once the restriction was removed, she devoted herself into the literary creation and integrated the black folklore materials that she collected in the South into her works, which infused her works fresh vitality.The black folklore manifests the uniqueness of the black culture, which enhances the sense of ethnic belongingness of the blacks and ethnic cohesion of the Negro and maintains ethnic dignity of the Negro. Hurston successfully subverts the stereotype of the black folks, who were dim and clumsy in the white Americans’eyes and shapes the new image of the African Americans, who are lively, witty, creative and with positive attitude towards life through the oral tradition of the African Americans. The black folklore is the emotional bond of the black folks and the ethnic cohesion of the Negro. The black folks in the black community participate these folkloric activities together, hear the drum rhythm of their ancestors, engrave the common painful history on their mind and share the same emotion. The common memory, emotion and culture make the black community a unity and the spiritual home of the black folks. The black community is the promised land for the black people to search for selves and reconstruct their cultural identity. While the black community cannot form without the black folklore, which is the important way to show themselves, show the ethnic characteristics and uniqueness and maintain the ethnic dignity.