Nanny, Signifying Empowerment: The Evolution of the Dispirited Black Female in Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God

Mary Jane Lupton contends, TEWWG "is a novel about life, power, and survival" (46).[...]through the transcending power of her literary skill in redefining the feminine spaces, Hurston constructs Nanny, a survivor, who struggles to hold on to the remnants of a spirit that had been beaten do...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inCultural intertexts Vol. 7; pp. 132 - 151
Main Author Lancaster, Iris M
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Cluj-Napoca Dunarea de Jos University Faculty of Letters Galati 01.01.2017
Subjects
Aesthetics
African American literature
American literature
Double consciousness
Empowerment
Hurston, Zora Neale (1891-1960)
Literary devices
Literature
Locke, Alain LeRoy (1886-1954)
Novels
Pain
Power
Semiotics
Women
Womens literature
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Summary:Mary Jane Lupton contends, TEWWG "is a novel about life, power, and survival" (46).[...]through the transcending power of her literary skill in redefining the feminine spaces, Hurston constructs Nanny, a survivor, who struggles to hold on to the remnants of a spirit that had been beaten down by the effects and after effects of slavery.[...]Klaus Benesch, in his article "Oral Narrative and Literary Text", characterizes Nanny as "deprived of self-determination and free will" (629); thus, he feels this forces her to turn a blind eye to Janie's needs.Hurston through several "linguistic moments" as biographer, Robert Hemenway (1971) calls them, is able to revision the ending for the dispirited black woman.[...]studying the grammatical functionality of these linguistic moments is what allows readers to see how Hurston is able to breathe new life into the dispirited black woman.The signifying monkey's power and identity lie in his mastery of verbal techniques that act as manoeuvring skills (Gates 1989: 46).[...]slaves, who were able to hear about the signifying monkey's dual voiced technique used to outfox an enemy, were able to learn a useful strategy that would allow them to find freedom in spite of their imprisonment.
ISSN:2393-0624
2393-1078