ENG 232: American Literature Survey

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.

Zora Neale Hurston and American Literary Culture clearly documents the course of Hurston's remarkable literary career and her rise from near obscurity at the time of her death to acknowledgment in the 1990s as the foremost writer of the Harlem Renaissance. Genevieve West examines the cultural history of Hurston's writing and the reception of her work.

This introductory book designed for students explores Hurston's artistic achievements and her unique character: her staunch individualism, her penchant for drama, her sometimes controversial politics, her philosophical influences and her views on gender relations. Lovalerie King explores Hurston's life and analyses her major works and short stories. Historical, social, political, and cultural contexts for Hurston's life and work, including her key role in the development of the Harlem Renaissance, are set out.

From critically acclaimed journalist Valerie Boyd comes an eloquent profile of one of the most intriguing cultural figures of the twentieth century. Wrapped in Rainbows, the first biography of Zora Neale Hurston in more than twenty-five years, illuminates the adventures, complexities, and sorrows of an extraordinary life. Acclaimed journalist Valerie Boyd delves into Hurston's history. This book not only positions Hurston's work in her time but also offers riveting implications for our own.

Zora in Florida focuses on the place that nurtured and inspired Zora Neale Hurston's work, the frontier wilderness of central Florida and the all-black town of Eatonville. Essays in this collection explore a variety of Hurston's writings including Mules and Men, Jonah's Gourd Vine, and Sweat.

This book is a well-written account of this writer and folklorist who was largely unrecognized in her lifetime. Janelle Yates wrote this volume as part of the Unsung Americans series.