Moses and nation-building Zora Neale Hurston's Moses, Man of the Mountain and Edward Said's Freud and the Non-European

• Published in: Comparative American studies Vol. 5; no. 3; pp. 333 - 356
• Main Author: Farebrother, Rachel
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Leeds Routledge 01.09.2007; Maney
• Subjects: American studies; ANTHROPOLOGY; COLONIALISM; Cultures and civilizations; EDWARD SAID; Ethnic groups. Acculturation. Cultural identity; FRANZ BOAS; Imperialism; MOSES; Nation building; NATIONALISM; Novels; Orientalism; Perception of others; Philosophers; Said, Edward; SIGMUND FREUD; Sociology; Sociology of art and literature; Sociology of knowledge and sociology of culture; ZORA NEALE HURSTON; Franz Boas; anthropology; Nationalism; Edward Saïd; Sigmund Freud; Edward Said; Colonialism; Zora Neale Hurston; Ethnic group; Moses
• ISSN: 1477-5700; 1741-2676
• DOI: 10.1179/147757007X223990

This article examines the significance of the representation of Moses as an Egyptian in Zora Neale Hurston's Moses, Man of the Mountain and Edward Said's Freud and the Non-European. Pairing Hurston and Said continues Said's project of seeing authors 'contrapuntally', so exposing imperialism as a neglected, if submerged, context for Hurston's response to nationalism in Moses. I argue that Hurston's novel cannot be read as a straightforward critique of race-based nationalism. Although Moses is of a different ethnic group to the Hebrews he leads, Hurston's portrayal of his rule is haunted by imperialism, in which one ethnic group exploits another. In this sense, Moses, Man of the Mountain bears the signs and strains of her struggle against racialist thinking.