Part One: Published Work
The Revolt of a Writer: Race, Gender and Identity in Zora Neale Hurston's Novel:
Their Eyes Were Watching God
This thesis attempts an analytical study of Zora Neale Hurston’s novel titled Their Eyes Were Watching God. The significance of this study is derived from the significance of Their Eyes as the most widely read and most privileged text in all of the African-American literature. It is appreciated in the present time as an inherent part of all American literary canons and has made Hurston the godmother of the modern Black female authors. This study suggests that the quest for identity is the primary theme of Hurston’s Their Eyes and spotlights the author’s invitation for all suppressed subjects to search for individuality and independence. It argues that Hurston urges all Americans to make the necessary reconciliation in order to achieve an independent identity within a larger national unity. Therefore, she addresses the binary opposites in the American society, including males and females, as well as Whites and Blacks, all in equal terms. Her premise relies on her conviction that the quest for identity is a general human tendency and an inspiration from God, whom the writer identifies with nature in the novel. In fact, the study suggests that the title of Their Eyes Were Watching God is very relevant to Hurston’s ultimate theme concerning the quest for identity. The study is both theoretical and analytical. Applying Charles Taylor’s theory about the creation of identity and the politics of recognition, the thesis examines Hurston’s attempt to accentuate the mutual relationship between a human’s identity and the society’s granted approval or recognition. The Canadian philosopher’s theory about the reciprocated recognition between the members of the same society confirms the validity of Hurston’s concept of a united American identity.
Part Two: Unpublished Work
1. "Leave the Shoreline and Strike Out for the Deep Water": Literary Analysis of Sonny's Blues"
2. "Sweat, Sweat, Sweat! Work and Sweat, Cry and Sweat, Pray and Sweat!": A Feminist Reading of Hurston's Short Story Sweat"
3. Politics of Oppression and the Art of Self-Creation in Toni Morrison’s "Sula" andJames Baldwin’s "Sonny's Blues"