Zora Neale Hurston - A Life in American History

In this biography, chronological chapters follow Zora Neale Hurston''s family, upbringing, education, influences, and major works, placing these experiences within the context of American history. This biography of Zora Neale Hurston, one of the most influential African American writers of the 20th century and a central figure in the Harlem Renaissance, covers all of the major points of development in Hurston''s life as well as her major publications. Hurston''s impact extends beyond the literary world: she also left her mark as an anthropologist whose ethnographic work portrays the racial struggles during the early 20th century American South. This work includes a preface and narrative chapters that explore Hurston''s literary influences and the personal relationships that were most formative to her life; the final chapter, "Why Zora Neale Hurston Matters," explores her cultural and historical significance, providing context to her writings and allowing readers a greater understanding of Hurston''s life while critically examining her major writing.

About the author

Stephanie Li is Professor of African and African American Studies at Duke University. She has published seven books including the award-winning, Something Akin to Freedom: The Choice of Bondage in Narratives by African American Women (2010) as well as Signifying without Specifying: Racial Discourse in the Age of Obama (2011), Playing in the White: Black Writers, White Subjects (2015), Signifyin(g) Immigrants: Twenty-First Century Pan-African American Literature (2018), and Ugly White People: Whiteness in Contemporary American Literature from the University of Minnesota Press. She is the co-editor of the Cambridge University Press Series, “Race in US Literature and Culture,” and has co-edited several special issues of American Literary History and Black Camera.

Product details

• Authors: Stephanie Li, Li Stephanie
• Publisher: Abc Clio Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 24.04.2025
• EAN: 9798216195191
• ISBN: 9798216195191
• No. of pages: 232
• Series: Black History Lives
• Subjects: Fiction > Narrative literature > Letters, diaries; History, BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Literary Figures, BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Women, Biography: general, 20th Century, 20th century history: c 1900 to c 2000, HISTORY / United States / 20th Century, 20th century, c 1900 to c 1999, United States of America, USA, Black & Asian Studies, Modern Period, C 1500 Onwards, HISTORY / African American & Black, Relating to African American / Black American people