Zora Neale Hurston: Collected Plays (Multi-Ethnic Literatures of the Americas (Mela))

✍ Scribed by Zora Neale Hurston

• Year: 2008
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 424
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

Though she died penniless and forgotten, Zora Neale Hurston is now recognized as a major figure in African American literature. Best known for her 1937 novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, she also published numerous short stories and essays, three other novels, and two books on black folklore.Even avid readers of Hurston's prose, however, may be surprised to know that she was also a serious and ambitious playwright throughout her career. Although several of her plays were produced during her lifetime-and some to public acclaim-they have languished in obscurity for years. Even now, most critics and historians gloss over these texts, treating them as supplementary material for understanding her novels. Yet, Hurston's dramatic works stand on their own merits and independently of her fiction. Now, eleven of these forgotten dramatic writings are being published together for the first time in this carefully edited and annotated volume. Filled with lively characters, vibrant images of rural and city life, biblical and folk tales, voodoo, and, most importantly, the blues, readers will discover a "real Negro theater" that embraces all the richness of black life.

✦ Table of Contents

Contents......Page 7
Acknowledgments......Page 9
Chronology......Page 11
Introduction: Zora Neale Hurston—A Theatrical Life......Page 15
A Note on the Text......Page 33
Meet the Mamma (1925)......Page 35
Color Struck (1926)......Page 67
Spears (1926)......Page 85
The First One (1927)......Page 97
Cold Keener (1930)......Page 109
Filling Station......Page 111
Cock Robin......Page 119
Heaven......Page 124
Mr. Frog......Page 128
Lenox Avenue......Page 134
The House That Jack Built......Page 139
Bahamas......Page 145
Railroad Camp......Page 150
Jook......Page 157
De Turkey and De Law (1930)......Page 165
The Sermon in the Valley (1931)......Page 225
Four Plays from Fast and Furious (1931)......Page 235
Woofing......Page 236
Lawing and Jawing......Page 244
Forty Yards......Page 249
Poker!......Page 251
The Fiery Chariot (1932)......Page 255
Spunk (1935)......Page 261
Polk County (1944)......Page 303
Appendix Programs from The Great Day (1932), From Sun to Sun (1932), and All de Live Long Day (1934)......Page 397
Explanatory Notes......Page 407
Bibliography......Page 421
About the Editors......Page 424