흑인 여성의 말하기의 의미 - 허스톤과 워커

The Meaning of Black Women"s Telling: Hurston and Walker

&nbsp;&nbsp;Zora Neale Hurston and Alice Walker write powerful, expressive fiction depicting the black woman&quot;s struggle for spiritual wholeness and sexual, political, and racial equality. Walker sees Hurston as the ancestral “godmother” for her people as well as for herself. So Walker&quot;s The Color Purple is related to Huston&quot;s Their Eyes Were Watching God. In these works, Walker and Hurston expose the psychological and physical abuse a woman suffering at the hands of men in a patriarchal society. Janie experiences repeated abuse from the first husband, then the second. Similarly, Celie is abused by her stepfather, and this abuse is repeated by her husband, Mr.<BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;But Janie&quot;s third marriage, largely healing, prepares for her creation of self and community through the telling of her story. Tea Cake encourages Janie to live for herself and helps her to find her self-respect and her true voice. Nevertheless in his death she is free to discover security in herself, and the courage to speak in her own black woman&quot;s voice, no longer dependent on men. Like Janie, through speech Celie establishes her freedom breaking Albert&quot;s hold on her. Celie finds an identity through a network of female relationships with Shug, Nettie, Sofia. Then Celie is able to break free from the masculine prohibition against speech.<BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;Hurston stresses the significance of the black oral tradition in the lives of folk women. Janie&quot;s telling of her story to Pheoby&quot;s hungry listening, her own narrative act is crucial to her self-definition. To have a voice is to have a self, and Janie&quot;s move from private thought to publish self-expression in itself constitutes a defining of her identity. What she says offers a commentary on the ways blacks can take control of their lives. Her tale will become part of the local lore, an oral art form which not only expresses the vision of a woman, but one which teaches a lesson as well. Inspirited by female figures, Celie transforms herself from victim to victor by throwing angry words back at her oppressor. In addition, Celie learns to transcend her disgust with men and to love even Albert.