The Language of a Culture

by Maggie Thomas

            Zora Neale Hurston, like many other African American writers of this time (1900s-1930s), was involved in the Harlem Renaissance. Through this movement and through her work of short stories and novels she gained notoriety with “writing that was uniquely ethnocentric and at the same time appealing to both mainstream and minority audiences”(Heard 129). Hurston was known for writing and depicting her characters in the dialect and spelling that was common in their own communities. As an anthropologist she traveled the south, around the US in general and even abroad to Haiti to study different cultures and mainly the African American culture to depict in her writing. Hurston truly embraced her southern heritage and the mind-set shone through her writing.

            Today, Hurston is given the recognition as one of the greatest African American writers of her time. But, there are always the critics and the ones who disagree. There were critics that were openly disagreeing and disapproving of Hurston’s writing. Richard Wright who was an African American author most known for his work “Uncle Tom’s Children.” He openly disliked Hurston’s work stating that she “voluntarily continues in her novel the tradition which was forced upon the Negro in the theater, that is, the minstrel technique that makes the 'white folks' laugh” (Carpio). This criticism comes from Hurston’s realistic depiction of Negro talk and her common setting in her stories as the South. Hurston’s defense was to criticize Wright’s own work and state “since the author himself is a Negro his dialect is a puzzling thing. One wonders how he arrived at it. Certainly he does not write by ear unless he is tone deaf” (Carpio). Hurston accurately tried to capture the dialect of African Americans in the South and in the country. Even though she was a part of the Harlem Renaissance which took place in New York City, North, she was never influenced by the Northern Disposition as Wright was. Wright openly criticized the Jim Crow laws and advocated for black civil rights, but all from New York City where he resided, he drew an obvious barrier between himself and the South. Hurston stayed true to her southern roots for she “preferred Southern rural settings” (Carpio).

            Hurston was a major player in the Harlem Renaissance and it allowed her to gain literary standing and truly started her career as an influential writer, but she does not see the North as a proper place for the true character of the Negro to be depicted. As an anthropologist “she analyzes how identity markers like dialect and skin color adversely limit the admission of non-mainstream social groups into the mainstream society” (Heard 130). She uses her depiction of language and marginalized non-mainstream southern rural blacks as main characters in her stories. But, gives her main characters personality that is to be admired in any race, which is what her writing is really about. Transcending social barriers of race. Was Hurston right to use the common dialect of Southern rural blacks? Or as Wright thinks, does it give her less credibility?

                                                            Works Cited

Carpio, Glenda R. and Werner Solloros. "The Newly Complicated Zora Neale Hurston."             Chronicle Of Higher Education 57.18 (2011): B6-B9. Academic Search Complete. Web.             30 Mar. 2012.

Heard, Matthew. "Dancing Is Dancing No Matter Who Is Doing It": Zora Neale Hurston,             Literacy, And Contemporary Writing Pedagogy." College Literature 34.1 (2007): 129-            155. Academic Search Complete. Web. 30 Mar. 2012.