Scarecrow Press
Pages: 292
•
Trim: 6½ x 9½
978-0-8108-9152-4 • Hardback • May 2013 • $136.00 • (£105.00)
978-0-8108-9153-1 • eBook • May 2013 • $129.00 • (£99.00)
Cynthia Davis is professor of English and Interim Associate Dean of Academic Affairs at Barry University (Miami Shores, Florida).
Verner D. Mitchell is professor of English and the Director of Graduate Studies at the University of Memphis.
Davis and Mitchell are coauthors of three books, including Literary Sisters: Dorothy West and Her Circle, A Biography of the Harlem Renaissance (2012).
In addition to its extensive annotated bibliography, the volume contains three excellent original essays indicating new directions in the assessment of Hurston's works. Although she had received a number of awards, her work fell into oblivion during the 1950s when her use of folklore and depictions of rural blacks living rich, fulfilling lives in segregated communities in the South became antithetical to the urban Northern Harlem Renaissance movement. Now in the twenty-first century, thanks partly to the feminist movement and new African studies programs, the complexities, sophistication, and artistry of her writings are once more being appreciated. The bibliography section is divided into two parts, further subdivided into Books and Articles and Chapters, for many works listed include other writers. All books are identified by consecutive numbers with the first number showing the genre and the second number the alphabetically by author listed work. Part 1 separates by genre: biographies, general criticism, 40 pages devoted to her most popular novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, and her other novels and short stories. Part 2 reveals the breadth of her interests, influence, and writings under the headings Plays, Films, Dance, Folktales, Anthropology, Comparative Literature, Letters, Journalism, and Essays. The volume concludes with three appendices. Appendix A lists doctoral dissertations written between 1975 and 2012 in which Hurston is often part of a larger topic or group. Appendix B names her books written for children and young adults, and appendix C divides all her primary works by genre including sound recordings and unpublished writings. The index identifies only the authors of works cited by their individual numbers. Beyond its practical use to discover as much as possible about Zora Neale Thurston, the book is also valuable to any reader interested in understanding how cultural attitudes have expanded in the past few decades.
— American Reference Books Annual