Zora Neale Hurston

Yvonne Johnson (Central Missouri State University)
Download PDF Add to Bookshelf Report an Error

In her introduction to

Dust Tracks on a Road

(1942), Maya Angelou states: “It is difficult, if not impossible, to find and touch the real Zora Neale Hurston” (xii). Hurston’s life has been surrounded by questions and controversy, and many of these questions, especially about her adult life, are not answered in her autobiography,

Dust Tracks on a Road.

Hurston’s autobiography is contained in three volumes: her “official” autobiography,

Dust Tracks on a Road

; her famous anthropological work,

Mules and Men

; and her most famous novel,

Their Eyes Were Watching God.

Her masterpiece,

Their Eyes Were Watching God,

is the first self-conscious effort by an American ethnic writer to simultaneously subvert patriarchal discourse and to give voice to women of color.

Zora Neale Hurston was

2654 words

Citation: Johnson, Yvonne. "Zora Neale Hurston". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 04 March 2005 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=2272, accessed 19 March 2024.]

2272 Zora Neale Hurston 1 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

Save this article

If you need to create a new bookshelf to save this article in, please make sure that you are logged in, then go to your 'Account' here

Leave Feedback

The Literary Encyclopedia is a living community of scholars. We welcome comments which will help us improve.