Zora Neale Hurston¿s novel "Their Eyes Were Watching God". Storytelling and the Blues as aspects of Diasporic Survival

Academic Paper from the year 2022 in the subject American Studies - Comparative Literature, grade: Excellent with houner, Mansoura University (Faculty of Arts), course: Phd, language: English, abstract: Zora Neale Hurston used Black American slang to uncover racism against her black folk. She employed not only slang languages of her black folk but also her African culture heritage. Her novel "Their Eyes Were Watching God" is examined to demonstrate how storytelling and the blues, as aspects of diasporic survival, function in her fiction which depicts how African cultural heritage operates in the United States. She articulates the need for her black folks throughout diaspora to confront racism by employing their African cultural heritage as a vehicle for empowerment. Janie, Hurston¿s protagonist, finds that when she embraces her African heritage not only does she gain great awareness of her selfhood better as African American, but she also discovers that her Africanity and her identity are intertwined.