DOI: 10.36347/sjahss.2019.v07i09.003

Pages: 634-640

This article examines the narrative structure and the "textual architecture" of Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God, an African American novel. According to Henry Louis Gates Jr. this masterpiece defines Hurston as a pioneer of a literary tradition aesthetically grounded on the interface of orality and literacy. The analysis is based on a narratological and stylistic approach that addresses the fabric of Hurston’s novel often called "tale-novel". The study brings to the conclusion that Their Eyes Were Watching God builds upon particular and innovative narrative strategies through the eyes of a competent and implied reader. Hurston presented the novel to the public of its time with innovative narrative strategies, and then pioneered a new African American literary tradition.