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Nature's Place in Zora Neale Hurston's "John Redding Goes to Sea," "Magnolia Flower," and "Sweat"

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Date Issued:
2008
Abstract/Description:
Zora Neale Hurston is recognized as an important American literary figure, but the majority of her fiction is overshadowed by the critical attention given to her most popular novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God. Just as her short stories remain relatively ignored by critics, little is written about her thoughts regarding nature and the human relationship with the natural environment. This thesis draws upon the recent growth of ecocriticism and ecofeminist literary criticism in an attempt to interpret Hurston's environmental thought as manifested in three of her early short stories, "John Redding Goes to Sea," "Magnolia Flower," and "Sweat." In this study, I show that even in her early short stories, Hurston's fiction is ripe with imagery and narrative that blend the natural with the cultural while effectively illustrating and engaging the interconnectedness between social inequality and environmental degradation in the South.
Title: Nature's Place in Zora Neale Hurston's "John Redding Goes to Sea," "Magnolia Flower," and "Sweat".
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Name(s): Redman, F. Russell
Stover, Johnnie, Thesis advisor
Florida Atlantic University, Degree grantor
Type of Resource: text
Genre: Electronic Thesis Or Dissertation
Date Created: 2008
Date Issued: 2008
Publisher: Florida Atlantic University
Place of Publication: Boca Raton, Fla.
Physical Form: application/pdf
Extent: 79 p.
Language(s): English
Abstract/Description: Zora Neale Hurston is recognized as an important American literary figure, but the majority of her fiction is overshadowed by the critical attention given to her most popular novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God. Just as her short stories remain relatively ignored by critics, little is written about her thoughts regarding nature and the human relationship with the natural environment. This thesis draws upon the recent growth of ecocriticism and ecofeminist literary criticism in an attempt to interpret Hurston's environmental thought as manifested in three of her early short stories, "John Redding Goes to Sea," "Magnolia Flower," and "Sweat." In this study, I show that even in her early short stories, Hurston's fiction is ripe with imagery and narrative that blend the natural with the cultural while effectively illustrating and engaging the interconnectedness between social inequality and environmental degradation in the South.
Identifier: FA00000953 (IID)
Degree granted: Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2008.
Collection: FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection
Note(s): Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters
Subject(s): Hurston, Zora Neale--John Redding goes to sea--Criticism and interpretation
Hurston, Zora Neale--Magnolia flower to sea--Criticism and interpretation
Hurston, Zora Neale--Sweat--Criticism and interpretation
Nature in literature
Human ecology in literature
Held by: Florida Atlantic University Libraries
Sublocation: Digital Library
Persistent Link to This Record: http://purl.flvc.org/fau/fd/FA00000953
Use and Reproduction: Copyright © is held by the author with permission granted to Florida Atlantic University to digitize, archive and distribute this item for non-profit research and educational purposes. Any reuse of this item in excess of fair use or other copyright exemptions requires permission of the copyright holder.
Use and Reproduction: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/
Host Institution: FAU
Is Part of Series: Florida Atlantic University Digital Library Collections.