The Study of Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God and Seraph on the Suwanee in the Light of Helene Cixous' Theories

Master's Thesis from the year 2012 in the subject Women Studies / Gender Studies, grade: 20, , course: English language and literature, language: English, comment: This thesis was mentioned as a good study as the researcher had undergone a difficult situation in order to accomplish it. This was the major reason that she decided to publish her paper for free, so that other students and researchers around the world can use it. On the defense session, the thesis examiner who was also the head of the department announced that the writer of this text bears the capability of writing research papers and doing similar jobs., abstract: Zora Neale Hurston is a reputable figure in the fields of African-American literature and Women's studies. The researcher aims at reading her masterpiece "Their Eyes Were Watching God" along with her other fictional work "Seraph on the Suwanee" under the light of the theories of the post-structuralist French feminist critic and thinker, Hlne Cixous. The aim of this study is to scrutinize whether the selected novels could be regarded as examples and models of criture fminine. The selected novels possess notable features, which led the researcher to study them from Cixous's perspectives. The first leading and prominent feature is the novels' being written by a woman. The second far-reaching feature is the existence of female protagonists within both of the selected texts who revolt against patriarchal figures. By investigating the pivotal notions of openness, multiplicity, body as a means of resistance against patriarchal constructions and the dominance of voice as a subversive element within the texts, the thesis aims to reach this outcome: Their Eyes Were Watching God and Seraph on the Suwanee are capable to bear post-structuralist as well as feminine qualities. In sum, Zora Neale Hurston, the author of the novels, could be categorized as an example of Cixous's notion of criture feminine.