Sweat

by Hurston, Zora Neale; Wall, Cheryl A.

• ISBN13: 9780813523163
• ISBN10: 0813523168
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1997-03-01
• Publisher: Rutgers Univ Pr

Summary

Now frequently anthologized, Zora Neale Hurston's short story "Sweat" was first published in Firell, a legendary literary magazine of the Harlem Renaissance, whose sole issue appeared in November 1926. Among contributions by Gwendolyn Bennett, Countee Cullen, Langston Hughes, and Wallace Thurman, "Sweat" stood out both for its artistic accomplishment and its exploration of rural Southern black life. In "Sweat" Hurston claimed the voice that animates her mature fiction, notably the 1937 novel Their Eyes Were Watching God; the themes of marital conflict and the development of spiritual consciousness were introduced as well. "Sweat" exemplifies Hurston's lifelong concern with women's relation to language and the literary possibilities of black vernacular. This casebook for the story includes an introduction by the editor, a chronology of the author's life, the authoritative text of "Sweat," and a second story, "The Gilded Six-Bits." Published in 1932, this second story was written after Hurston had spent years conducting fieldwork in the Southern United States. The volume also includes Hurston's groundbreaking 1934 essay, "Characteristics of Negro Expression," and excerpts from her autobiography, Dust Tracks on a Road. An article by folklorist Roger Abrahams provides additional cultural contexts for the story, as do selected blues and spirituals. Critical commentary comes from Alice Walker, who led the recovery of Hurston's work in the 1970s, Robert Hemenway, Henry Louis Gates, Gayl Jones, John Lowe, Kathryn Seidel, and Mary Helen Washington.

Table of Contents

Introduction	3	(22)
Cheryl A. Wall
Chronology	21	(4)
``Sweat''	25	(206)
Zora Neale Hurston
Background to the Story
Research	43	(12)
Zora Neale Hurston
Characteristics of Negro Expression	55	(18)
Zora Neale Hurston
Negotiating Respect: Patterns of Presentation among Black Women	73	(34)
Roger D. Abrahams
A Selection of Blues and Spirituals
Black Snake Moan
Deep River
Stan' Still Jordan
O, Wasn't Dat a Wide River?
Give-a Way, Jordan
Roll, Jordan, Roll	107	(6)
Genesis 1-3	113	(6)
Zora Neale Hurston and the Speakerly Text	119	(16)
Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
The Gilded Six-Bits	135	(14)
Zora Neale Hurston
Critical Essays
From Zora Neale Hurston: A Literary Biography	149	(4)
Robert E. Hemenway
Breaking out of the Conventions of Dialect	153	(16)
Gayl Jones
The Artist in the Kitchen: The Economics of Creativity in Hurston's ``Sweat''	169	(14)
Kathryn Lee Seidel
From Jump at the Sun: Zora Neale Hurston's Cosmic Comedy	183	(10)
John Lowe
``I Love the Way Janie Crawford Left Her Husbands'': Zora Neale Hurston's Emergent Female Hero	193	(18)
Mary Helen Washington
Looking for Zora	211	(20)
Alice Walker
Selected Bibliography	231	(2)
Permissions	233