ENGLISH 45C Lecture 24: 11/16 Their Eyes Were Watching God #1
Document Summary
Major project of the novel seems to be to articulate janie crawford as creative/indep subject text as a bildungsroman. Very diff from the sound and the fury in its focus on bodies. Hurston argues again and again that janie"s coming into subjectivity isn"t just psychic/etc. , but includes her understanding of her own body-ness. Hurston b. 1891 alabama, tho thought of florida as her home (novel"s setting) Wrote 4 novels, highly fictionalized autobiography, and 2 studies of southern/west indian folklore. Signif lit figure; but then things fell apart, 5th novel rejected by publisher, took on a series of menial jobs, in poverty for rest of her life, buried in unmarked grave 1960. What changes her legacy: 1975, novelist alice walker tried to find hurston"s grave; buys its a headstone, writes article about her. Since then, hurston"s been at the center of am canon, most influential afram woman writer of 20th century.
