whiteness of it all: Patriarchal dysfunction and feminist consciousness in Zora Neale Hurston's "Seraph on the Suwanee"

Author

• Rita C. Butler

Author Type

Graduate Student

Date of Award

2002

Document Type

Thesis

Publication Status

Version of Record

Submission Date

October 2026

Thesis/Dissertation Advisor [Chair]

Stover, Johnnie

Abstract

In Seraph on The Suwanee, Zora Neale Hurston continues a tradition of covert resistance on the part of a black culture struggling to survive within a hostile white society. Her last published novel reveals a talent for combining art and politics and in many ways represents a synthesis of her race, class, and gender consciousness which had grown over the years. Instead of her familiar focus on black culture, however, this paper argues that Hurston uses the story of a conflictive white marriage to create an insightful social critique that challenges a patriarchal society characterized by inequalities of race, class, and gender.

Extent

103 p.

Comments

FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection|Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters|Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2002.|FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

Recommended Citation

Butler, Rita C., "whiteness of it all: Patriarchal dysfunction and feminist consciousness in Zora Neale Hurston's "Seraph on the Suwanee"" (2002). Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2000 - 2009. 482.
https://digitalcommons.fau.edu/etd_general_5/482

Identifier

FADT12949

Format

pdf