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Velvet Coats and Manicured Nails: The Body Speaks Resistance in Dust Tracks on a Road

Velvet Coats and Manicured Nails: The Body Speaks Resistance in Dust Tracks on a Road : The Body Speaks Resistance in Dust Tracks on a Road by Tanya Y. Kam Zora Neale Hurston's supposed opposition to making race politics an integral part of her texts has caused critics and literary figures from her time to the present to brand her as a race traitor and a sellout. Richard Wright condemned Hurston's writing for lacking activism and pandering to the whims of white Americans. In a 1934 review of Their Eyes Were Watching God, Wright charged that the novel "carries no theme, no message, no thought," that it was merely a "minstrel technique" whose objective was to make white folks laugh (qtd in Washington 18). Hurston's autobiography, Dust Tracks on a Road (1942), was also criticized by many reviewers who felt that Hurston idealized the relationship between white and black folks without an appropriate critique of race relations. Harold Preece's 1943 review denounced Dust Tracks on a Road as "the tragedy of a gifted, sensitive mind, eaten up by an egotism fed on the patronizing admiration of the dominant world"; even longtime Hurston admirer Alice Walker commented on its lack of accountability, writing that it was "the most unfortunate thing that Zora ever wrote" http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png The Southern Literary Journal University of North Carolina Press

Velvet Coats and Manicured Nails: The Body Speaks Resistance in Dust Tracks on a Road

The Southern Literary Journal , Volume 42 (1) – Jan 27, 2009

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Publisher
University of North Carolina Press
Copyright
Copyright © University of North Carolina Press
ISSN
1534-1461
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

: The Body Speaks Resistance in Dust Tracks on a Road by Tanya Y. Kam Zora Neale Hurston's supposed opposition to making race politics an integral part of her texts has caused critics and literary figures from her time to the present to brand her as a race traitor and a sellout. Richard Wright condemned Hurston's writing for lacking activism and pandering to the whims of white Americans. In a 1934 review of Their Eyes Were Watching God, Wright charged that the novel "carries no theme, no message, no thought," that it was merely a "minstrel technique" whose objective was to make white folks laugh (qtd in Washington 18). Hurston's autobiography, Dust Tracks on a Road (1942), was also criticized by many reviewers who felt that Hurston idealized the relationship between white and black folks without an appropriate critique of race relations. Harold Preece's 1943 review denounced Dust Tracks on a Road as "the tragedy of a gifted, sensitive mind, eaten up by an egotism fed on the patronizing admiration of the dominant world"; even longtime Hurston admirer Alice Walker commented on its lack of accountability, writing that it was "the most unfortunate thing that Zora ever wrote"

Journal

The Southern Literary JournalUniversity of North Carolina Press

Published: Jan 27, 2009

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