Bernard Schweizer
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- January 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199751389
- eISBN:
- 9780199894864
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199751389.003.0003
- Subject:
- Religion, Philosophy of Religion
Contrasting Swinburne’s carefree misotheistic candor, Zora Neal Hurston remained cryptic about her conflicted relationship with God. Partly because she was black and female, readers tend to overlook ...
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Contrasting Swinburne’s carefree misotheistic candor, Zora Neal Hurston remained cryptic about her conflicted relationship with God. Partly because she was black and female, readers tend to overlook indications of misotheism, even when they seem plain. Few, if any, critics have taken the words “all gods who receive homage are cruel. All gods dispense suffering without reason” in Their Eyes Were Watching God as potentially targeting Yahweh as well as any other gods. Instead, critics have either ignored such passages in her work or tried to explain them away. This chapter offers fresh readings of Hurston’s acclaimed works, and it draws on private writings, letters, and memoirs to fill in the picture of Hurston’s latent misotheism. Finally, the author reveals a surprising web of concealed references to writers ranging from Epicurus to Proudhon and Nietzsche, to bolster his claim that Hurston was indeed as hostile to God as the thinkers who influenced her.Less
Contrasting Swinburne’s carefree misotheistic candor, Zora Neal Hurston remained cryptic about her conflicted relationship with God. Partly because she was black and female, readers tend to overlook indications of misotheism, even when they seem plain. Few, if any, critics have taken the words “all gods who receive homage are cruel. All gods dispense suffering without reason” in Their Eyes Were Watching God as potentially targeting Yahweh as well as any other gods. Instead, critics have either ignored such passages in her work or tried to explain them away. This chapter offers fresh readings of Hurston’s acclaimed works, and it draws on private writings, letters, and memoirs to fill in the picture of Hurston’s latent misotheism. Finally, the author reveals a surprising web of concealed references to writers ranging from Epicurus to Proudhon and Nietzsche, to bolster his claim that Hurston was indeed as hostile to God as the thinkers who influenced her.
Marcus Anthony Hunter and Zandria F. Robinson
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780520292826
- eISBN:
- 9780520966178
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520292826.003.0002
- Subject:
- Sociology, Race and Ethnicity
Centering the life and times of Zora Neal Hurston and the music of Lauryn Hill, this chapter begins to develop the Black Map. The chapter questions the currency of existing map, revealing the ...
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Centering the life and times of Zora Neal Hurston and the music of Lauryn Hill, this chapter begins to develop the Black Map. The chapter questions the currency of existing map, revealing the consequences of the white logics and practices upon which our maps are based. Also questioning the assumptions within the Great Migration narrative, this chapter offers the idea of a “long migration” to better characterize the constant movement by black people in their quest for freedom. The authors illustrate the radical potential of imagining and creating maps that better reflect the lives and experiences of people of color.Less
Centering the life and times of Zora Neal Hurston and the music of Lauryn Hill, this chapter begins to develop the Black Map. The chapter questions the currency of existing map, revealing the consequences of the white logics and practices upon which our maps are based. Also questioning the assumptions within the Great Migration narrative, this chapter offers the idea of a “long migration” to better characterize the constant movement by black people in their quest for freedom. The authors illustrate the radical potential of imagining and creating maps that better reflect the lives and experiences of people of color.
