"Hey Kenya. Kara here. This argument about coonery is as Old as the New Negro movement. See Richard wright vs Zora Hurston. (It) would be great if your list expounded more on the strategies artists have historically taken to navigate the gulf between The Performative and the The Desired (which is inevitably socially responsible/ political) unfortunately it's not a new concern- more a rite of passage for each generation."
Since I'm not able to decisively identity the 'strategies artists have historically taken to navigate the gulf between The Performative and the The Desired', I am getting my research on... Please feel free to contribute to the conversation.
ZORA NEALE HURSTON ON ZOMBIES (Florida, represent!)
"Miss Hurston seems to have no desire whatever to move in the direction of serious fiction. (pp. 22, 25)
Miss Hurston can write; but her prose is cloaked in that facile sensuality that has dogged Negro expression since the days of Phillis Wheatley. Her dialogue [in Their Eyes Were Watching God] manages to catch the psychological movements of the Negro folk-mind in their pure simplicity, but that's as far as it goes.
Miss Hurston voluntarily continues in her novel the tradition which was forced upon the Negro in the theater,..." RICHARD WRIGHT
More non-Google research to come. Old arguments have staying power...
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Hey Kenya-- I'll send you some interesting PDFs about Hurston-- I taught "Their Eyes..." in my prison class, as well as others. The men did an amazing analysis of slavery and issues of power and performance, particularly in relation to gender-- they had direct experience of issues of systemic oppression interacting with personal choice. Yale probably has access to JSTOR, and online article database-- it rocks. xo, Rebecca
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