Chapter 1

Zora Neale Hurston: Second Wave Feminism, Domestic Abuse, and Haitian Folklore

 

Chapter 2

The Lonely Island of the Self in Feminine Practices in Writing: Intersectionality, Intertextuality, Semiotics, and Modernity

Toni Morrison and Willa Cather

 

Chapter 3

The Short Story in the Multicultural Literary Tradition

breaking down interior interpersonal borders to heal from abuse

 

 

 

 

 

 Chapter 1

I am honored to write a book on thematic approaches to writing through the lens of cultural poetics and semiotics.

 

I signify that the novels Beloved by Toni Morrison and My Mortal Enemy by Willa Cather,  as well as Folklore of Zora Neale Hurston, Mules and Men (1935) and Tell My Horse (1938),  are healing and redemptive.  Zora Neale Hurston’s mythic representation of the second wave feminist and the theme of domestic abuse is the center of my newest work entitled: Domestic Abuse and The Lonely Island of the Self, breaking down interior interpersonal borders through the study and practice of writing. Zora was born on Wednesday, January 7, 1891, in Notasulga, Alabama, and died on Thursday, January 28, 1960, in Fort Pierce, Florida.  In the essay “Characteristics of Negro Expression” (1934), she describes her rich and flexible uses of folk expression. My first paper on Hurston—which I presented at the College English Association conference in 2012 in Richmond, Virginia—featured a statement on her story, “Magnolia Flower,” in which I found the use of the river as redemptive.

My audience includes scholars of African American Studies and in particular, cultural poetics, cultural criticism, folklore, Caribbean Studies, Modernists, Third Wave Feminists, educators, critics, graduate students, and professional researchers and writers.

 

An analysis of competing or similar books include a book that relates to my research is about Haiti and Zora’s novel. Zora Neale Hurston, Haiti, and Their Eyes Were Watching God, by La Vinia Delois Jennings. Publication Year: 2013. (http://muse.jhu.edu/book/24908), Zora Neale Hurston wrote her most famous work, the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, while in Haiti on a trip funded by a Guggenheim Fellowship to research the region’s transatlantic folk and religious culture for her study Tell My Horse: Voodoo and Life in Haiti and Jamaica. Another work, which relates is entitled Haiti and the Americas by Carla Calargé (Editor); Raphael Dalleo (Editor); Luis Duno-Gottberg (Editor); Clevis Headley (Editor). Publication Date: 2013. Haiti has long played an important role in global perception of the western hemisphere, but ideas about Haiti often appear paradoxical.

 

A list of courses in which my book might be used as a text or supplementary text include African American Literature, Religious Studies, Political Science. Humanities, Digital Humanities, The Study of Archival Research, Caribbean Studies, Haitian Folklore, Zora Neale Hurston, Cultural Studies, Ethnographic Studies, and Rhetorical Study of the Language and Linguistics of Zora Neale Hurston. For the purpose of my study, I also delve into literary research for clues. Furthermore, Haitian Folklore (Zonbi) (NPR) and the works of Zora Neale Hurston underlie important elements of the archetype that still carry vital information for scholars who wish to create a pedagogical and fundamentally purposeful basis for zombie characters in story and poetry as scholarship in literary classes.

My recently published new work with Cambridge Scholars Publishing, American Women Writers, Poetics, and the Nature of Gender Study, has a chapter on Zora Neale Hurston’s short story “Black Death” compared to Stephanie Powell Watts’ short story “Unassigned Territory”.  Folklorist and novelist, prolific short-story writer and gifted autobiographer, she was one of the most talented writers of her era. Testimonials often combine with very specific types of literature. For example, Zora Neale Hurston used folk writing to deliver her most impressive collection.

 

“Domestic Abuse and Healing the Lonely Island of the Self”, an unpublished paper presentation for College English Association 2017 conference in Hilton Head, South Carolina on April 1, 2017, holds a foundation in the thinking that “imagination draws us to consider memory, metaphor, story and emotion” (Egan, 167).  I began writing about my topic in 2003 to prove that imaginative writing such as journaling, reflecting, blogging, in the digital setting, heals us from the burden of domestic abuse, which we may have experienced in the tender years of childhood.

 

Background

Although the pain of abuse is real, we can find solutions to family violence and poverty, which profoundly affect us. As a scholar, my passionate devotion to writing for healing, for example, has driven me to share the importance of scholarship in the area of achievement of the poor (Berliner). Rooted in the fundamental truths that I gained from healing through writing, as the child of an unstable home, my research in the area of inclusive teaching and learning offers an immediate message to my readers.  Arguably, through my own writing and imagination, I seek to prove that journaling reaches into our own souls to write which is a mirror into cultural changes necessary for all humanity. In 2011, I wrote a journal about my experiences on South Mountain. In 2012, a book of short stories entitled The Mythic Appaloosa was published based on my journaling. As a paradigm and set of frameworks, I create strategies to teach Authentic Assessments in English 1, 2 for Lehigh University and Literature Classes at The University of Maryland based on my own writing experiences and publishing.

 

A sample paragraph from my journal: “The length and breath of South Mountain represents a microcosm of all that is most precious and delightful about the forests of Northeastern United States. Innumerable species of plants, birds, and insects abide in a rich space. The presence overwhelms the landscape when I am approaching from northern roadways. The movement of the land upwards respects the majesty of the river, which lies below. I ponder the history of the mountain. The travel journals of those who have sojourned over and under the mountains whisper truths. The purpose of my reflections concerns my life history on South Mountain. She is a mighty fortress. She stands as a home and a space to broaden my social understanding of culture and growth. Lehigh University resides here. So does a passage to Quakertown. On the drive over the mountain, a statue of a Native American peers over the valley below. She was and still is a metaphor for dreaming to me. South mountain stands as a haven, a tribute to my existence and a home. Memory and love of nature center upon her. I am still a traveler who has watched the town of Bethlehem change over my life span of fifty-eight years. The most dramatic change, industrialism to technological movements alter the way of life within the hills around the mountain. Bethlehem Steel brought heavy pollution but now with areas for walking and living for those of poverty to those who are wealthy preside as stillness of nature remains constant. The mountain does not distinguish between any, for the mountain is neutral. There is a symbolic bright start on the top of the mountain, a man-made star that lights and glimmers with a sense of calmness and peace. Main Street looks like a small village with a giant past and a simple future. Bethlehem is a small town that seems to be kind. When you walk on Main Street in our town, the breeze from the river and the creek gently glide across your path. The mountain is a gateway to the city for those who live in the valley. My imagination soars when I see the mountain. A space of earth that is truly mine, for memories surge at local places such as the public library that is now Moravian Academy Middle School. When I recall the days that I visited the library to borrow a book, I re-enter into childhood near the mountain. Urban at her base and rural in areas as well. South Mountain proceeds into my psyche to bear sadness and hope.”

From 2002-2009 I wrote books and painted oils and watercolors about the rivers in the state of Pennsylvania. During the early months of 2009, contemplation on the land where I live promoted me to write a diary called “Writing between Rivers”, Lehigh, Delaware and Susquehanna, a paradigm for a novel about poverty called The Passing Light.  I teach journaling and historical fiction writing in my lectures. I visited special places that inspired me to retain hope as I experienced life changes such as job shifts, illness, and the death of my parents. The land between rivers emerged as a template and voice to tell a story that carries hope. I came to know poverty during the twentieth century. My father experienced her during the Black March in Eastern Europe and my mother found her in the confines of a childhood in the coal regions of Pennsylvania with her.  To end world hunger, we banish selfishness and engender hope through sharing. Share your plenty with others so you engage in peaceful acts to bridge poverty through contentedness. I am delighted to share my writing and art based upon the rivers of Pennsylvania. 

 

 

 

 

Works Cited

Berliner, David C. “Are Teachers Responsible for Low Achievement by Poor Students? Kappa Delta Pi, Record, Fall, 2009.

DiEdwardo, Maryann. Editor and Contributor. American Women Writers, poetics and the nature of gender study. Newcastle upon Tyne, UK, England: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2016.

Egan, Kieran. Imagination in Teaching and Learning. London: Routledge, 1992.