The first book ever published by an Afro-American, was written by a woman. Since the publication of Phillis Wheatley’s Poems on Various Subjects, however, the literary discourse in African American literature has been dominated by male writers. Similar to white literature, Afro-American women had only a marginal position in the creation of their writing. At the beginning of the last century, Virginia Woolf wrote about the relationship between woman and fiction in A Room Of One's Own: “Imaginatively she is of the highest importance; practically she is completely insignificant. She pervades poetry from cover to cover; she is all but absent from history “(66). This practical exclusion from the literary process, or as Abbandonato puts it, “female silencing” (1107), has provoked the emergence of an Afro-American feminist literature. In the last century, writers such as Nella Larsen, Maya Angelou and Toni Morrison, just to name a few, started to write against the grain of dominant racial and gender discourses. In this paper, the breaking down of this gender bias through techniques of resistance will be explored in two novels by their fellow writers, Zora Neale Hurston and Alice Walker.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction
2. Body Politics in Philosophy, Feminism and Literature – A Theoretical Framework
2.1 Michel Foucault’s ‘body politic’ and its pertinence to literary analysis
2.2 A Feminist Approach to the “body politic”
2.3 The Black Aesthetic Discourse
2.4 The Emergence of Black Feminist Consciousness in Afro-American Literature
3. “Pygmalion in Reverse” – The Reconstruction of Female Characters
3.1 Resisting to Write, Writing to Resist – The Lives of Zora Neale Hurston and Alice Walker
3.2 The Reconstruction of Black Female Characters in Their Eyes and The Color Purple
4. “Writing in white ink” – womanist motifs as textual strategies of resistance in Their Eyes and The Color Purple
4.1 “Lately I feel like me and God make love just fine anyhow” – Female Spirituality as a Technique of Resistance
4.2 “mah wife don’t know nothin’ ‘bout no speech-makin’” – Female Creativity as a Technique of Resistance
5. Conclusion
Research Objectives and Themes
This work examines how the female protagonists in Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God and Alice Walker's The Color Purple employ specific textual strategies to resist patriarchal and racial oppression. By integrating Foucault’s notion of the “body politic” with feminist theories like Cixous’s “writing in white ink,” the thesis investigates how these authors deconstruct stereotypical images of black womanhood, such as the “mammy,” the “tragic mulatta,” and the “jezebel,” to establish an authoritative female voice.
- Application of Foucauldian power dynamics to literary analysis of black female bodies.
- Deconstruction of historical literary stereotypes of black women.
- Exploration of female spirituality as a subversive and resistant force.
- Analysis of female creativity and language as tools for emancipation.
- Comparison of resistance strategies across different historical and literary contexts.
Excerpt from the Book
3.1 Resisting to Write, Writing to Resist – The Lives of Zora Neale Hurston and Alice Walker
Zora Neale Hurston and Alice Walker both grew up in the South. Hurston was born in Florida in 1891, and Walker half a century later in Georgia. Traumatic experiences at a young age had an impact on Hurston and Walker and might have contributed to them feeling not really part of the community they lived in, looking at things from the outside. Their outsider position could have advanced their ability to observe the Southern black community that was to be so vividly portrayed in their novels. Whereas the Southern communities were depicted by Hurston and Walker as worlds almost exclusively populated and run by blacks, in real life, the two women had to deal with all the injustice and cruelty America had used as a policy for Afro-Americans for the last 400 years. Growing up in Eatonville, an all-black town, Zora was shocked to discover the Jim Crow laws when she left her hometown at 14. Part of Hurston’s astonishment can be grasped in Their Eyes when the protagonist of the story, six-year-old Janie, realises that she looks different from everyone else.
Chapter Summaries
1. Introduction: Outlines the historical marginalization of Afro-American women in literature and introduces the core analytical goal: exploring how Hurston and Walker break gender and racial biases through specific techniques of resistance.
2. Body Politics in Philosophy, Feminism and Literature – A Theoretical Framework: Establishes an interdisciplinary foundation using Foucault’s "body politic," feminist critiques of power, the Black Aesthetic Discourse, and the rise of Black Feminist Consciousness.
3. “Pygmalion in Reverse” – The Reconstruction of Female Characters: Applies the theoretical framework to the authors' lives and the novels, specifically focusing on how Hurston and Walker deconstruct common stereotypes of black female characters.
4. “Writing in white ink” – womanist motifs as textual strategies of resistance in Their Eyes and The Color Purple: Investigates two primary motifs—spirituality and creativity—as central "womanist" tools that allow characters to resist dominant patriarchal and racist discourses.
5. Conclusion: Summarizes the findings, confirming that while Hurston’s resistance is more subtle and Walker’s more open, both successfully rewrite the black female body and reclaim agency through their specific, culture-rooted textual strategies.
Keywords
Afro-American literature, Zora Neale Hurston, Alice Walker, Michel Foucault, body politic, resistance, Hélène Cixous, writing in white ink, black feminism, womanism, stereotypes, mammy, tragic mulatta, jezebel, female spirituality, creativity.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the primary focus of this work?
This academic paper analyzes how Zora Neale Hurston and Alice Walker utilize specific textual strategies in their novels to resist and deconstruct negative stereotypes imposed upon black women by both white and black male literary discourses.
What central themes are explored?
The work focuses on the intersection of race, gender, and power, specifically exploring themes of female body politics, the reconstruction of black female characters, spirituality, and creativity as tools of resistance.
What is the main research question?
The core research question asks how Hurston and Walker succeed in producing a discourse that resists racial and gender stereotypes, and how they rewrite the "body politic" through an African American feminine lens.
Which scientific methods are applied?
The paper utilizes an interdisciplinary approach, primarily applying Michel Foucault’s concept of the "body politic" and "practices of the self," combined with feminist literary theories from Hélène Cixous, Luce Irigaray, and Judith Butler.
What topics are discussed in the main part of the text?
The main part of the text covers the theoretical framework, the biographical context of the authors, the deconstruction of specific stereotypes (mammy, mulatta, jezebel), and the analysis of spirituality and creativity as subversive textual motifs.
Which keywords define this work?
Essential keywords include Afro-American literature, body politics, womanism, resistance strategies, écriture féminine, and the deconstruction of stereotypical black female representations.
How do Hurston and Walker differ in their approach to resistance?
While both writers share the goal of dismantling patriarchal and racial tropes, the study notes that Hurston’s methods of resistance are often more subtle and individualistic, whereas Walker’s approach is more explicit and grounded in a collective female network.
What role does the "Black Aesthetic Discourse" play in this analysis?
The Black Aesthetic Discourse provides a race-conscious dimension to the study, showing how Hurston and Walker incorporate aspects of black culture, orality, and identity to create a counter-discourse against dominant Western literary traditions.
- Citar trabajo
- Bojana Ruf (Autor), 2007, "Writing in White Ink" - Textual strategies of resistance in Zora Neale Hurston´s "Their Eyes Were Watching God" and Alice Walker´s "The Color Purple", Múnich, GRIN Verlag, https://www.grin.com/document/80593
