“Oral Tutelage” and the Figure of Literacy: Paule Marshall’s Brown Girl, Brownstones and Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God

• Published in: Melus Vol. 24; no. 1; pp. 161 - 176
• Main Author: Basu, Biman
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Los Angeles, etc The Society for the Study of the Multi-Ethnic Literature of the United States 22.03.1999; Society for the Study of the Multi-Ethnic Literature of the United States; Oxford University Press
• Subjects: African American authors; African American literature; African Americans; American literature; Beryl; Black literature; Blacks; Daughters; Females; Hurston, Zora Neale (1891-1960); Interiority; Literacy; Literary criticism; Marshall, Paule; Marshall, Paule (1929-2019); Mothers; Narratives; Novels; Oral history; Portrayals; Protagonists; Race identity; Racism in literature; Storytelling; Syntax; Theme; United States; Writers; United States
• ISSN: 0163-755X; 1946-3170
• DOI: 10.2307/467912

Basu argues that an important theme in African American literature is the relationship between the writer or the artist and the community in general. Basu examines this theme, focusing in part on oral storytelling, in Paule Marshall's "Brown Girl, Brownstones" and Zora Neale Hurston's "Their Eyes Were Watching God."