Review article
Womanist Spirituality in Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God
Sandra Novkinić
; University of Bihać, Faculty of Pedagogy
Damir Arsenijević
; University of Tuzla, Faculty of Philosophy
Abstract
Traces of the tradition of spiritual stories that reveal a special place of black women in religious world of their communities are noticeable in African-American literature written by women. Recognizing the African influence on African-American culture as defined by transformations, there is a better understanding of black culture in America, including an understanding of black spirituality. Womanist spirituality embraces a number of varied religious practices, and religions, and at the same time acknowledges an adaptable nature of African-descended people’s spirituality that is part of their everyday life for centuries, and especially the life of African-American women. This is also a theoretical standpoint based on the works of one of the first American black anthropologists Zora Neale Hurston, who was interested in black folk culture, and especially black religion and spirituality, so she enriched the fictional world of her novel Their Eyes Were Watching God with spirituality as the key segment of cultural experience of African-American women. In her novel, Hurston intertwines the themes of spirituality and womanism in the character of Janie and in this way creates a figure of a spiritual womanist.
Keywords
womanist spirituality; womanism; spirituality; religion; African-American literature
Hrčak ID:
190781
URI
Publication date:
15.12.2017.
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