Hitting A Straight Lick with a Crooked Stick: Race and Gender in the Work of Zora Neale Hurston PDF
Preview Hitting A Straight Lick with a Crooked Stick: Race and Gender in the Work of Zora Neale Hurston
Hitting a Straight Lick with a Crooked Stick Hitting a Straight Lick with a Crooked Stick Race and Gender in the Work of Zora Neale Hurston Susan Edwards Meisenhelder THE UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA PRESS Tuocaloo6U Copyright © 1999 The University of Alabama Press Tuscaloosa, Alabama 35487-0380 All rights reserved Manufactured in the United States of America First Paperbound Printing 2001 9876 543 21 09 08 07 06 05 04 03 02 01 co The paper on which this book is printed meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Science-Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1984. Cover design by Shari DeGraw Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Meisenhelder, Susan Edwards, 1951- Hitting a straight lick with a crooked stick: race and gender in the work of Zora Neale Hurston / Susan Edwards Meisenhelder. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references (p.) and index. ISBN 0-8173-1131-9 (alk. paper) 1. Hurston, Zora Neale-Criticism and interpretation. 2. Women and literature-United States-History-20th century. 3. Afro-American women in literature. 4. Afro Americans in literature. 5. Race relations in literature. 6. Sex role in literature. I. Title. PS3515.U789 Z785 1999 813'.52-ddc21 98-58023 For my parents Ralph Donald Edwards Virginia Hefner Edwards and In loving memory of my grandparents Virginia Austin Hefner Atlas Roland Edwards Katie Griffin Edwards Contents Acknowledgments IX Abbreviations Xl Introduction 1 1. "Fractious" Mules and Covert Resistance in Mules and Men 14 2. "Natural Men" and "Pagan Poesy" inJonah's Gourd Vine 36 3. "Mink Skin or Coon Hide": The Janus-faced Narrative of Their Eyes j;#re TM:ltching God 62 4. The Ways of White Folks in Seraph on the Suwanee 92 5. "Crossing Over" and "Heading Back": Black Cultural Freedom in Moses, Man of the Mountain 116 6. "With a Harp and a Sword in My Hand": Black Female Identity in Dust Tracks on a Road 143 7. The "Trials" of Black Women in the 1950s: Ruby McCollum and Laura Lee Kimble 175 Conclusion 193 Notes 199 Works Cited 233 Index 253 Acknowledgments FOR PERMISSION to quote from the works of Zora Neale Hurston and from other selected correspondence and materials, I would like to make grateful acknowledgment to the following: the estate of Zora Neale Hurston; the Archives of Charles Scribner's Sons in the Manuscripts Di vision of the Princeton University Library (excerpts published with permission of the Princeton University Library); the collections of the Chicago Historical Society; the American Philosophical Society; The Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University; University of Florida Libraries, Department of Special Collections; Fisk University Library Special Collections; and Moorland-Spingarn Research Cepter, Howard Univer sity. For permission to use the photograph of Hurston taken by Carl Van Vechten, I thank the Van Vechten Trust. My sincere thanks also go to Margaret Doane, Harry Hellenbrand, and Susan Willis for their helpful comments on earlier versions of this manuscript and to Tom for his good-humored and unflagging support.
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