|
|
Article: "That commonality of feeling": Hurston, hybridity, and ethnography.(Zora Neale Hurston)(Critical Essay)
- Article from:
- African American Review
- Article date:
- September 22, 2004
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2004 African American Review. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
|
Preparing the manuscript of Mules and Men, Zora Neale Hurston wrote to her mentor, anthropologist Franz Boas, "full of tremors, lest you decide that you do not want to write the introduction." She knew that the book contained much "unscientific matter," according to ethnographic conventions, but she also assured Boas that "the conversations and incidents are true" (Letter to Boas, 20 Aug. 1934). Though not based strictly on "hard facts" presented in scientific format, Hurston's text captured much more than a traditional ethnography could capture. Her ethnographic texts invite fuller analysis of what they reveal about African Americans and all Americans.
Thus ...