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Hitting a straight lick with a crooked stick : race and gender in the work of Zora Neale Hurston

2001

Format:	Book
Author:	Meisenhelder, Susan Edwards, 1951-
Title:	Hitting a straight lick with a crooked stick : race and gender in the work of Zora Neale Hurston / Susan Edwards Meisenhelder.
Edition:	First paperbound printing.
Publisher, Date:	Tuscaloosa : University of Alabama Press, [2001]
Description:	258 pages ; 24 cm
Subjects:	Hurston, Zora Neale -- Criticism and interpretation. Hurston, Zora Neale. Twentieth century. Criticism and interpretation. Women and literature -- United States -- History -- 20th century. Women and literature. History. African American women in literature. African American women in literature. African Americans in literature. African Americans in literature. Race relations in literature. Race relations in literature. Sex role in literature. Sex role in literature. United States.
Notes:	Originally published: c1999. Includes bibliographical references (pages [233]-251) and index.
Contents:	"Fractious" mules and covert resistance in Mules and men -- "Natural men" and "pagan poesy" in Jonah's gourd vine -- "Mink skin or coon hide": the Janus-faced narrative of Their eyes were watching God -- The ways of white folks in Seraph on the Suwanee -- "Crossing over" and "heading back": Black cultural freedom in Moses, man of the mountain -- "With a harp and a sword in my hand": Black female identity in Dust tracks on a road -- The "trials" of Black women in the 1950s: Ruby McCollum and Laura Lee Kimble.
ISBN:	0817311319
Other Number:	48765276
System Availability:	1
Current Holds:	0
# Local items:	1
Control Number:	134026
Call Number:	PS3515.U789 Z785 2001
Course Reserves:	0
# Local items in:	1
# System items in:	1

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The title of this important contribution to African American studies comes from the "John tales," part of the trickster tradition that strongly influenced Hurston's own storytelling. Meisenhelder (California State Univ., San Bernardino) emphasizes various strategies of "masking" and "signifying" that Hurston employed in a life-long critique of white oppression, from her early short fiction to her late journalism. "Beneath the often lighthearted surfaces and the 'charming' characters often praised by Hurston's reviewers," says Meisenhelder, "lie stories of power and dominance, acquiescence and resistance to the racial and gender hierarchies Hurston saw in the dominant world." Hurston's debt to African American myths and modes of expression has been explored by others, including John Lowe in his Jump at the Sun: Zora Neale Hurston's Cosmic Comedy (CH, Jul'95). But in contrast to critics who describe an increasing conservatism in Hurston's later work, Meisenhelder argues that changes occurred not in the author's perspective but in such aspects of Hurston's "writing context" as "the individual people whose support she sought or whose control she wrestled with"--from anthropologist Franz Boas and patron Charlotte Osgood Mason to Florida writer Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings. Strongly recommended for all academic libraries--undergraduate, graduate, and research. J. W. Hall; University of Mississippi

Summary

Hitting a Straight Lick with a Crooked Stick examines the ways Zora Neale Hurston circumvented the constraints of the white publishing world and a predominantly white readership to critique white culture and its effects on the black community. A number of critics have concluded that Hurston simply capitulated to external demands, writing stories white people wanted to hear. Susan Edwards Meisenhelder, however, argues that Hurston's response to her situation is much more sophisticated than her detractors recognized. Meisenhelder suggests, in fact, that Hurston's work, both fictional and anthropological, constitutes an extended critique of the values of white culture and a rejection of white models for black people. Repeatedly, Hurston's work shows the diverse effects that traditional white values, including class divisions and gender imbalances, have on blacks.

Table of Contents

	Acknowledgments	p. ix
	Abbreviations	p. xi
	Introduction	p. 1
1.	"Fractious" Mules and Covert Resistance in Mules and Men	p. 14
2.	"Natural Men" and "Pagan Poesy" in Jonah's Gourd Vine	p. 36
3.	"Mink Skin or Coon Hide": The Janus-faced Narrative of Their Eyes Were Watching God	p. 62
4.	The Ways of White Folks in Seraph on the Suwanee	p. 92
5.	"Crossing Over" and "Heading Back": Black Cultural Freedom in Moses, Man of the Mountain	p. 116
6.	"With a Harp and a Sword in My Hand": Black Female Identity in Dust Tracks on a Road	p. 143
7.	The "Trials" of Black Women in the 1950s: Ruby McCollum and Laura Lee Kimble	p. 175
	Conclusion	p. 193
	Notes	p. 199
	Works Cited	p. 233
	Index	p. 253

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