Zora Neale Hurston, Biographical Criticism, and African Diasporic Vernacular Culture.

This essay examines the portrayal of African diasporic culture in the Southern U.S. through an exploration of oral tradition by anthropologist Zora Neale Hurston. Relations between black and white, northerners and southerners, and educated and uneducated African Americans are discussed. The role of literacy and of the textualization of African American oral traditions in Hurston's life and work are also explored.