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Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching
God highlights the vitality of African American culture. This
work demonstrates how African Americans fashioned themselves
individually and collectively to combat racism, classism, and sexism.
An encyclopedia of African American folk culture, it simultaneously
presents historical, political, and social commentary on the
relationships between men and women as well as between blacks and
whites in America.
Included are interviews with people living
in the South at the time of the novel's publication, poetry,
rap, folktales, sermons, original materials on ebonics, minstrel
songs, the blues tradition, the novel in theatrical and dance performance,
and materials on Hurstons's hometown of Eatonville, Florida.
An excellent resource for students and teachers
first approaching the excitement and cultural flavor that define
Hurston's novels, this rich online resource provides the user access
to:
- The first five minutes of HarperAudio recording of Hurston's
Their Eyes Were Watching God performed by Ruby Dee (Theatre
Hall of Fame member, award-winning author and producer)
- Audio and video of Dr. Martin Luther King's historic "I
have a dream" speech at the March on Washington, 1963,
and audio of Jesse Jackson's address to the Democratic National
Convention, July 1984, representing the "man of words"
tradition
- Audio and video of singer Billie Holiday performing "Fooling
Myself"; audio of Bessie Smith singing "Gulf Coast
Blues"
- Music and lyrics of minstrel songs of Stephen Foster and Dan
Emmett as a comparison to Hurston's textured version of the
black vernacular
- E-text of Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass,
Written by Himself (1859)
- E-text of Phillis Wheatley's Poems on Various Subjects:
Religious and Moral (1773)
- Biographical profiles of Sojourner Truth, Frederick Douglass
and over 20 other notable African Americans
- Photographs, maps, and text on the all-black settlement of
the Nicodemus, Kansas Movement of 1877
- Glossary of cultural references and historical idioms from
Their Eyes Were Watching God
- Web-based study questions
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