Suffering and Survival in Black American Literature. Zora Neale Hurston's "Dust Tracks on a Road"

Academic Paper from the year 2021 in the subject American Studies - Literature, course: Doctoral Dissertation, language: English, abstract: This thesis examines Zora Neale Hurston's "Dust Tracks on a Road". Empowering the African cultural heritage is a frequent theme in Zora Neale Hurston's fiction. According to her, the cultural heritage is not something stagnant or inert; it continues to affect her black folks in the present and the future. Therefore, as she always believes, it is necessary for black Americans to turn to their African roots to inspire strength and guidance. Hurston's approach to the cultural heritage coincides with Diane Barthel-Bouchier's belief that heritage can be used as a way of life in order to attain sustainability. To Barthel-Bouchier, cultural heritage is a "living history incorporating social process of both continuity and change" (9). Indeed, Hurston's fiction is an attempt to make African culture serve life. Her novels and short stories can be read as endeavors to transform the perception of the African roots in the African Americans' psyche from a stain that needs to be washed out into a powerful force that can uphold the whole Afro-American community.