აფრო-ამერიკელი მწერალი ქალი, ზორა ჰერსტონი: ახალი ხედვები

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Date
2022-12
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ივანე ჯავახიშვილის სახელობის თბილისის სახელმწიფო უნივერსიტეტის გამომცემლობა
Abstract
In 1975, 15 years after Zora Neal Hurston’s death, African-American writer Alice Walker published an essay, “In Search of Zora Neal Hurstons,” in Ms. magazine, which marked a new beginning in the process of reevaluation of her achievements and role in American literature. My presentation aims at introducing this unfairly ignored writer whose legacy and life experience might be equally interesting. Writer, folklorist, and anthropologist Zora Neal Hurston is the author of several novels, an autobiography, plays, essays, and a number of non-fiction works. However, the novel “Their Eyes Were Watching God” is considered to be her magnum opus. The novel, which is widely discussed and highly praised today, was a commercial failure and sank without a trace soon after publication. Her non-fiction project: “Barracoon: The Story of the Last “Black Cargo,” published in 2018, has an even more dramatic history. The book is based on interviews with the last survivor of the last slave ship to land on American shores. Prior to being published, the manuscript was stored in the Howard University library archives, and it took 87 years for Barracoon to see the light of day. When Hurston arrived in New York City in 1925, the Harlem Renaissance was at its zenith, and she soon became one of the writers at its center. Although highly acclaimed today, her books drew their share of criticism at the time, as they depicted problems of the African-American community in an untraditional, controversial way. Contrary to the former attitude, today it is considered that her legacy “may help teach us to live with uncomfortable truths, not only about the complicated and terrible stories it records but also about the complicated and tremendous author who recorded it“. (Cep. 2018, p.2) “Literature as profound and original as the spirituals” – such is Zora Neal Hurston’s assessment today. The path that led her from harsh criticism and obscurity to such acclaim is, without a doubt, worthy of renewed attention and appropriate study.
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აფრო-ამერიკული ლიტერატურა, ქალთა საკითხები, რასიზმი, African – American Literature, Women studies, Racism
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პროფესორ დავით გოცირიძის 70 წლისთავისადმი მიძღვნილი სამეცნიერო კონფერენცია, თეზისები, 2022, გვ.: 71-75/ Scientific Conference DEDICATED TO THE 70TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE BIRTH OF PROF. DAVIT GOTSIRIDZE, Abstracts, 2022, pp.: 71-75