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Bezig met laden... Zora and Langston: A Story of Friendship and Betrayaldoor Yuval Taylor
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"Hurston and Hughes, two giants of the Harlem Renaissance and American literature, were best friends--until they weren't. Zora Neale Hurston (Their Eyes Were Watching God) and Langston Hughes ('The Negro Speaks of Rivers,' 'Let America Be America Again') were collaborators, literary gadflies, and close companions. They traveled together in Hurston's dilapidated car through the rural South collecting folklore, worked on the play Mule Bone, and wrote scores of loving letters to each other. They even had the same patron: Charlotte Osgood Mason, a wealthy white woman who insisted on being called 'Godmother.' Paying them lavishly while trying to control their work, Mason may have been the spark for their bitter falling-out. Was the split inevitable when Hughes decided to be financially independent of their patron? Was Hurston jealous of the woman employed as their typist? Or was the rupture over the authorship of Mule Bone? Yuval Taylor answers these questions while illuminating Hurston's and Hughes's lives, work, competitiveness and ambition"-- Geen bibliotheekbeschrijvingen gevonden. |
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Google Books — Bezig met laden... GenresDewey Decimale Classificatie (DDC)813.52Literature English (North America) American fiction 20th Century 1900-1944LC-classificatieWaarderingGemiddelde:
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One disappointing (yet typical) aspect of L&Z’s history is that the men sided with Langston after L&Z fell out, and it got ugly. Men have insulted and discredited women's creations for millennia, so why I was surprised to see this is beyond me. I guess I thought there was a spirit of comradery. Some of the more influential men were misogynist to begin with; certainly there was nothing Zora could do right to them. I’m happy that Zora's work thrives while her haters remain obscure at best.
It’s easy to turn up my nose at the relationships both Zora and Langston had with the anti-Semitic, racist Charlotte Osgood Mason, who financially sponsored both writers for many years, albeit with her own agenda. Her patronage definitely came with strings attached, but perhaps in the 1920s as well as before, during, and after the Depression it was a worthy trade. It allowed Z&L to survive and focus on their writing. Things weren't like they are now when one can work a day job to make ends meet and write during evenings and weekends. In my mind, the Harlem Renaissance was a magical time when black artists created and thrived and were recognized for their gifts. This book dulled the shine of the period for me and showed that people were merely people, just as we are now.
Apparently quite a few artists during the Harlem Renaissance became members of the Communist Party, no doubt because any political ideology that had equality as a basic tenet was bound to be attractive to black folks. But later on they found out it was another lie; the Communist Party for whatever reason abandoned its earlier promises to African Americans, and guess who suffered for it.
The book could have benefitted from a listed chronology of events, even though it was written chronologically. I like to see at a glance who were contemporaries and when certain things occurred in relation to other events. Also more photos would’ve been nice. Useful resources for further exploration include chapter notes, further readings, and an index, always handy.
Although Zora and Langston disappointed my expectations for the Harlem Renaissance and its luminaries in several ways, the writing is what matters most. We will always have these authors’ work.