Hitting A Straight Lick with a Crooked Stick: Race and Gender in the Work of Zora Neale Hurston

Description

This comprehensive study examines the ways Hurston circumvented the constraints of the white publishing world and a predominantly white readership to critique white culture and its effects on the black community. Hitting a Straight Lick with a Crooked Stick is the first single-authored book-length study of Zora Neale Hurston and provides the most thorough and meticulous examination of her full body of work. A number of earlier critics have concluded that Hurston simply capitulated to external demands, writing stories white people wanted to hear. Susan Edward.  Read more... Acknowledgments Abbreviations Introduction 1. "Fractious" Mules and Covert Resistance in Mules and Men 2. "Natural Men" and "Pagan Poesy" in Jonah's Gourd Vine 3. "Mink Skin or Coon Hide": The Janus-faced Narrative of Their Eyes Were Watching God 4. The Ways of White Folks in Seraph on the Suwanee 5. "Crossing Over" and "Heading Back": Black Cultural Freedom in Moses, Man of the Mountain 6. "With a Harp and a Sword in My Hand": Black Female Identity in Dust Tracks on a Road 7. The "Trials" of Black Women in the 1950s: Ruby McCollum and Laura Lee Kimble Conclusion Notes.