Great American Novel

Episode 6: Watching the Horizon in THEIR EYES WERE WATCHING GOD

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Aug 20, 2021
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ANECDOTE

Hurston's 'Lost Decade' And Age Fraud

  • Hurston shaved a decade off her age to enter high school in Baltimore and later college.
  • She worked menial jobs during a largely undocumented 'lost decade' before publishing novels.
INSIGHT

Two Strands In Black Literary Politics

  • Late-19th to mid-20th-century Black literature split between protest-driven and aesthetic-focused approaches.
  • Hurston's novel exemplifies the aesthetic, inward-focused approach and clashed with protest writers like Richard Wright.
INSIGHT

Narration Versus Dialect Dynamic

  • Hurston's prose alternates between lyrical omniscient narration and phonetic dialect dialogue.
  • The narration often carries the book's poetic power while the dialect aims to preserve authentic speech.
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