An Analysis Of Janie In Their Eyes Were Watching God From The Perspective Of Intersectionality Theory

Zora Neil Hurston is one of the most outstanding black female writers in the history of American literature.Hurston’s works,with its distinctive blackness and the utilization of black culture,have become models for literary creation of black writers.The image of Janie Crawford,an independent and confident black woman,portrayed in her representative work Their Eyes Were Watching God enjoys a high prestige and receives wide attention from the black feminist circle.As African American literature has been the focus of study in China,Zora Neil Hurston and her works are no exception.There has emerged impressive academic progress.The studies put emphasis on the themes,characters,narrative strategies,language features and the relationship between Hurston’s life and her works,etc.However,there are few studies done from the perspective of intersectionality.As a kind of social theory,intersectionlity emphasizes that oppressions do not act independently;the interrelation between the oppressing and the oppressed is intricate and complex.The thesis tries to reinterpret the experience of Janie Crawford in Their Eyes Were Watching God from the perspective of intersectionality,discussing her intersect identities,shaped by the matrix of oppression from race,gender,class and so on,and its consequences as well.The thesis starts with the introduction to the key concepts and development of intersectionality and its main idea.Then,a further exploration of the matrix of domination that Janie is confronted with and her outsider-within experience is discussed.In the final part,a preliminary analysis on Janie’s approach to attain liberation and self-definition will be analyzed.Specifically,the effective solution for Janie to confirm subjective identity could be obtained through the way of self-definition,and the power of self-definition comes from African folk culture and feminist intentions.The way Janie define herself and her way of perceiving the world signal that intersect identities can form one’s unique experience,which rejects single-facet interpretation.Based on the above analysis,this thesis comes to the conclusion that it is essential for the oppressed to reflect their special and unique existence and experience,which is vital to secure identities.Specifically,Janie’s self-definition and self-valuation involve the combining of African tradition and the signaling of symbolic representations.