Universidade de São Paulo
Michela Rosa Di Candia
‘Signifyin(g)’ Womanhood: The Short Fiction of Zora Neale Hurston
and Alice Walker
São Paulo
2008
UNIVERSIDADE DE SÃO PAULO
FACULDADE DE FILOSOFIA, LETRAS E CIÊNCIAS HUMANAS
DEPARTAMENTO DE LETRAS MODERNAS
PROGRAMA DE PÓS-GRADUAÇÃO EM ESTUDOS
LINGUÍSTICOS E LITERÁRIOS EM INGLÊS
‘Signifyin(g)’ Womanhood: The Short Fiction of Zora Neale Hurston
and Alice Walker
Michela Rosa Di Candia
Tese apresentada ao Departamento de
Letras Modernas da Faculdade de
Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas
da Universidade de São Paulo, para a
obtenção do Título de Doutor em
Letras.
Orientadora: Profa Dra. Laura P.
Zuntini de Izarra
São Paulo
2008
‘Signifyin(g)’ Womanhood: The Short Fiction of Zora Neale Hurston
and Alice Walker
A Dissertation Presented
by
Michela Rosa Di Candia
Submitted to the Faculty of Philosophy, Languages and Humanity
Sciencies of University of São Paulo for the degree of Doctor of
Letters
March 2008
Department of Modern Languages
iv
To my father and
my mother
v
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to thank all the following individuals and organizations below for all
their help, support, advise and friendship during this doctorate experience:
• Dr. Laura Izarra, my supervisor at University of Sao Paulo (USP), who
encouraged and trusted me throughout my years as a graduate student. I am deeply
grateful for all her helpfulness and assistance.
• Dr. Tereza Marques for her intellectual and emotional support. I am very
appreciative of everything she has done over the years.
• Dr. Joseph T. Skerrett who helped define the focus of my doctoral research by
suggesting the reading of Zora Neale Hurston’s unpublished story “Under the
Bridge” and also the time he took to exchange ideas with me during my
postgraduate research at Amherst.
• Dr. Sandra Vasconcelos and Dr. Lynn Mario Menezes, professors who were
Members of the “Qualification Committee” at USP and took their time to read the
initial draft of this work. I express my special thanks to Lynn Mario for his useful
comments and the material exchanged.
• Dr. Andrea Rushing for accepting me as a student in the course “Representations
of Black Women” at Amherst College and furthermore for her critical readings of
some of my papers. Moreover, professor Castro of Amherst College who showed
me the way to research at Beinecke Library at Yale University.
• Still I want to thank all my friends and colleagues of the research group of
professor Laura Izarra for their intellectual support over the years. Special thanks
to Divanize Carbonieri for being patient and for her advise, Cielo Festino for her
inspiration and Marília Borges for the long distant friendship.
• To all the participants of the project “English Language Through Literary Texts”
and the students of the specialization course on ‘Non-canonical Literature” in
2007 who helped me to articulate many ideas.
• Edite, the secretary of the Department for her administrative support when so
many forms had to be filled.
• Rosana, Magda, Paulinha, Mário and Moysés who are my friends from Niterói,
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. They emboldened me and followed my path during my
lifetime as a graduate student.
• Nubia and Admar for their emotional support and close friendship.
vi
• Suzi, Maria Ana, Patrícia, Glauco, Jéferson, João and Adrilayne for the
companionship and the great moments spent together.
• Liane and Elisângela, my roommates, for their care while living at the students’
dorms at USP. I am deeply indebted especially to Jessica for her spiritual and
intellectual guidance.
• Sada, Jean-Marie, Juni, Bob, Alan, Luccha, Raquel, Kelly, Ildo and Samanta
whom I shared my experiences with while living in Amherst, MA. I owe to them.
They gave me their time and cooperation.
• Pauline for her hospitality and care while I lived in her house in Amherst, MA.
Special thanks to Gina as well who carefully read and reviewed my thesis.
• Maria Pilar for her generosity, hospitality and the delicious dinners she prepared
while I was in Amherst.
• Rosana, my cousin, for her calmness and supportive friendship. I am also in debt
to my aunt Angelina who prepared delicious food when I visited her and my uncle
Anastácio for his sense of humor.
• Adriana and Alessandra, my sisters, for their sustaining love and friendship.
Without Adriana’s technical/editorial assistance I could not have finished this
work. I am thankful to Márcio José for his loyalty and great sense of humor.
• My parents Emma and Pietro Antônio for their unconditional love and support
over the years away from them.
• Afrânio who came to my life in the middle of my doctorate research and gave me
his optimism and strength during the difficult moments. For his patience in
keeping alive our distant relationship. There are no words to express his love.
• Neusa Franzoi, who works for COSEAS at USP, and gave me the opportunity to
live in the students’ accommodation during my years as a graduate student.
• Capes Foundation for the financial support during this research in Brazil and
additionally the time I spent at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, MA.
vii
“We are a people. A people do not throw their
geniuses away. If they do, it is our duty as witnesses
for the future to collect them again for the sake of
our children. If necessary, bone by bone”
Alice Walker
viii
ABSTRACT
This doctoral research analyzes from a Brazilian perspective the constructions
of black womanhood in Zora Neale Hurston’s unpublished short-story “Under the
Bridge” and published short stories “Sweat”, “Spunk”, and “The Gilded Six-Bits”.
The Hurston stories are compared to “Roselily”, “Really, Doesn’t Crime Pay?”,
“Coming Apart” and “Porn”, written by the contemporary author Alice Walker.
Taking as a starting point that Alice Walker’s narratives ‘signify’ on the work of
Hurston, who wrote during The Harlem Renaissance (1920), this thesis aims to
investigate the threads that connect both writers by focusing on the ways in which
their female protagonists question or accept the parameters of “the cult of true
womanhood”. The conclusion shows that the portrayal of black women characters
symbolically questions representations of sexuality and racism in an attempt to make
visible the process of liberation from the constraints of American society at the time
of each author’s literary production. Thus the authors contribute to the development
of black literary criticism as well as to the tradition of black women writers.
Key-words: short-fiction, black womanhood, Zora Neale Hurston, Alice Walker,
black literary criticism.
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RESUMO EXPANDIDO
O presente trabalho de doutorado focaliza as construções de feminilidade
negra no conto não publicado “Under The Bridge”, de Zora Neale Hurston assim
como os já publicados “Sweat”, “Spunk” e “The Gilded Six-Bits” em comparação
com “Roselily”, “Really, Doesn’t Crime Pay?”, “Coming Apart” e “Porn”, da autora
contemporânea Alice Walker.
Ao supor que Alice Walker ‘significa’ ou ‘relê’ o trabalho de Hurston, que
escreveu durante a época da Renascença no Harlem, a tese tem como objetivo
investigar os elos de ligação entre as duas escritoras, focalizando a maneira pela qual
suas protagonistas femininas contestam ou aceitam os parâmetros determinantes do
“verdadeiro culto de feminilidade”. Conclui-se que a apresentação das personagens
femininas pelas escritoras negras simbolicamente questiona a representação da
sexualidade e racismo como uma tentativa de tornar visível o processo de libertação
das amarras da sociedade americana no momento de cada produção literária,
contribuindo desse modo para o desenvolvimento da crítica literária negra.
Na introdução desse trabalho, um panorama sobre o desenvolvimento da
escrita por mulheres negras é apresentado, considerando-se leitores não pertencentes
ao contexto cultural norte-americano, especialmente pelo fato da tese ser
desenvolvida no Brasil. Portanto, essa seção focaliza alguns aspectos sobre a vida de
Zora Neale Hurston e Al
