Their Eyes Were Watching God

出版者:University of Illinois Press

作者:Zora Neale Hurston

页数:286

出版时间:1978

价格:$6.95

装帧:Paperback

isbn号码:9780252006869

作者简介

Though during her life Zora Neale Hurston claimed her birth date as January 7, 1901 and her birth place as Eatonville, Florida, she was actually born on that date in the year 1891 in Notasulga, Alabama. Within the first year or two of her life her family moved to all-black Eatonville, however, and this community shaped her life and her writing to a significant degree. John Hurston, the author's father, was a carpenter and a preacher and was several times elected mayor of their town. Her mother, Lucy, died in 1904. The young Zora didn't take very well to her new stepmother and left home to work for a traveling theatre company, then in 1917 attended Morgan Academy in Baltimore to finish high school. Hurston entered Howard University in 1920 and studied there off and on for the next four years while working as a manicurist to support herself. Her first published story appeared in Howard University's literary magazine in 1921 and she received recognition in 1925 when another story was accepted by the New York magazine Opportunity, edited by Charles S. Johnson. After she won second place in the Opportunity contest, Johnson and others, including Alain Locke, encouraged Hurston to move to New York.

In New York Hurston became part the New Negro movement -- later referred to as the Harlem Renaissance -- attending parties with other notable African American writers such as Langston Hughes, Jessie Fauset, and Arna Bontemps. Hurston apparently cut quite a figure in Harlem society, her hat perched jauntily on her head, as she regaled groups with her tales of Eatonville, Florida and shocked others with her outrageous behavior which included such social excesses as smoking in public. During her early years in New York Hurston worked as an assistant to writer Fanny Hurst and began taking classes at Barnard College. At Barnard she studied anthropology under the renowned scholar Franz Boas. Her particular interest was in the area of folklore, and her background in Eatonville provided her both with rich data for scholarly study and fine raw material for her writing. Over the next several years Hurston would travel in the south, interviewing storytellers in Florida and Hoodoo doctors in New Orleans, all of which would feed into her writing.

One of Hurston's early works was the play Mule Bone, a comedy she wrote with Langston Hughes. Drawing from folk culture, Hurston and Hughes were trying to create an African-American comedy that did not depend on black stereotypes but came out of black rural life. Sadly, the authors had a misunderstanding over who owned the text of the play and their friendship was damaged beyond repair. The play itself was not published in its entirety until 1991. Hurston's first published book, Jonah's Gourd Vine, was a fictional work set in a small all-black Florida town which focused on the lives of two people remarkably like her parents. In her second book, Mules and Men, Hurston published what she found in her trips in the south. She worked for a number of years on this book until it was both highly expressive of the cultures she was writing about and geared toward a popular reading level. This is no turgid academic text and outshines her later anthropological work Tell My Horse. Their Eyes Were Watching God is generally considered to be Hurston's most powerful novel. Alice Walker writes of it, "There is no book more important to me than this one" (Hemenway xiii). It is the story of Janie Crawford, a woman who defines the parameters of her life and loves in opposition to the small-town mores of Eatonville. Moses, Man of the Mountain, Hurston's third novel, is a compelling rewriting of the biblical book of Exodus in the style of African-American southern vernacular. Dust Tracks on a Road, Hurston's autobiography, has proved to be the most enigmatic of her works. In what Robert Hemenway describes as "a [sometimes] discomfiting book," Hurston seems to evade race as a significant aspect of identity in American society, advocating instead "a personal transcendence of racial realities"(Hemenway 281). This text displays a conservatism in the author which increased with time. The last of her works that was published in her lifetime, Seraph on the Suwanee, which focuses on the marriage of a white couple, seems a long stretch from her roots in Eatonville.

From Darwin Turner's early and scathing criticisms of her work to Hemenway's balanced praise and Alice Walker's enthusiasm, Zora Neale Hurston has been the subject of intense critical attention since her "re-discovery" in the late 'sixties. The most prolific African-American woman writer of her time or earlier, the power of her imagery and the richness of the culture which she brings to life through her writings have found her enthusiastic new audiences in recent years. Hurston herself was unable to make a living from her writings and worked as a teacher, a librarian and a domestic in order to earn her livelihood. She spent her later years in Florida, continuing to write articles which were published in various local and national venues and three additional novels which were rejected for publication. Her death in 1960 in a welfare home went largely unnoticed by the world and she was buried in an unmarked grave. In 1973, during a time when Hurston's eminence was finally being recognized, Alice Walker placed a marker in the field where Hurston lay. The gravestone reads:

Zora Neale Hurston

"A Genius of the South"

1901[sic] -- 1960

Novelist, Folklorist

Anthropologist

读后感

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译后记：当代黑人女性文学的先行者 王家湘 佐拉·尼尔·赫斯顿出生于1891年，在美国第一个黑人小城伊顿维尔度过了童年。她的父亲是小城的市长，曾做过小学教师的母亲总是鼓励孩子们“跳向太阳”——要有远大志向。伊顿维尔没有一个白人，因此赫斯顿的童年是在没有种族...  

“远方的轮船承载着每个男人的希望。有些船只伴着潮为入港，另一些则始终航行在海平线上,从不脱离人们的视野直至嘹望者听天由命地移开目光，他们的梦想被时间摧折殆尽，这些船才会靠岸停泊。这便是男人的人生。 女人呢，她们把不愿想起的事情统统忘记，把她们不原忘记的每件事...  

用户评价

这本书的封面设计就有一种说不出的吸引力，那是一种复古又带着一丝忧郁的美感。我第一次看到它的时候，就觉得这本书一定蕴含着很多深邃的情感和值得思考的故事。虽然我还没有开始阅读，但单凭这封面，我就能想象出主角在某个时代背景下的生活，她的眼神里可能充满了希望，也可能带着一丝不易察觉的忧伤。这本书的书名本身也很有诗意，“他们的眼睛在凝视着上帝”，这让我联想到一种面对命运、面对未知、甚至面对神圣力量时的状态。它会是关于信仰的吗？还是关于人生的挣扎与救赎？我迫不及待地想翻开它，去探索那些隐藏在封面之下，却又如此清晰地呼唤着我的故事。书的尺寸也很适合手持阅读，纸张的质感也很好，翻动起来有种愉悦的触感，这都是阅读体验中不可或缺的一部分。我希望这本书能带我进入一个完全不同的世界，让我暂时忘却现实的烦恼，沉浸在一个充满力量和情感的故事之中。

这本书的封面是一种低饱和度的色彩，带有一种复古的胶片感，配合着书名，立刻营造出一种既宁静又充满张力的氛围。“他们的眼睛在凝视着上帝”，这句话本身就充满了宗教般的虔诚，又带着一丝对命运的敬畏。这让我联想到，书中的人物一定经历着某种重大的、甚至可能是命运攸关的时刻，他们的目光，不仅仅是在看，更是在诉说，在感受，在与某种至高的存在对话。这本书的装帧设计相当细致，纸张的质感极佳，书页的边缘也处理得十分得体，拿在手里能感受到一种沉甸甸的分量，这暗示着其中蕴含着丰富而深刻的内容。我期待着，这本书能够带我进入一个不同于现实的时空，让我去体验一种纯粹的情感，去思考那些关乎人生、关乎存在的终极问题。

刚看到这本书的时候，就被它那略带沉郁却又充满故事感的封面设计所吸引。书名“Their Eyes Were Watching God”本身就充满了哲学意味，让人不禁思考，在怎样的境遇下，人们会把目光投向神明，是在祈求，是在忏悔，抑或是绝望的呼唤？这本书的装帧也相当考究，触感温润的纸张，字迹清晰而优雅，仿佛都预示着这是一部值得细细品味的文学作品。我完全想象不到书中具体的情节，但这正是它的魅力所在，它留下了巨大的想象空间。或许是关于一个时代的缩影，又或许是关于个体在历史洪流中的挣扎与抗争。我迫不及待地想要翻开它，去感受那些可能存在的隐喻，去解读那些隐藏在字里行间的深意，去聆听那些在书中默默凝视的目光所要诉说的故事。

拿到这本书，我的第一感受是它传递出一种沉静而有力的气质。这本书的书页泛着一种温暖的米黄色，触感细腻，散发出淡淡的纸张香气，瞬间就让人心生喜爱。封面上的文字虽然简洁，却有一种直击人心的力量，仿佛在诉说着一个关于眼神、关于观察、关于某种超越凡俗的体验。这不仅仅是一个故事的名字，更是一种氛围的营造，一种引人入胜的邀请。我想象着，在某个遥远的年代，有一群人，他们的目光汇聚，他们的心灵在向上仰望，在寻求着某种答案，或者在承受着某种命运。这种画面感非常强烈，勾起了我对书中人物的无限好奇。这本书的重量也恰到好处，拿在手里不会觉得沉重，也不会轻飘飘，有一种踏实的感觉，仿佛握住了沉甸甸的时光和故事。我期待着，这本书能够带给我一场心灵的洗礼，让我重新审视自己与世界的关系，去感受那些细微却深刻的情感波动。

我被这本书的书名所深深吸引，那是一种既神秘又充满力量的表达。“他们的眼睛在凝视着上帝”，这句话本身就充满了宗教的色彩，也暗示着一种对生命终极意义的探寻。我猜想，这或许是一个关于信仰、关于救赎、关于在困境中寻找希望的故事。这本书的外观设计简约却不失格调，深邃的色调搭配着醒目的书名，有一种艺术品般的质感。当我第一次拿起它，就能感受到它散发出的独特气场，仿佛它不仅仅是一本书，更是一位饱经沧桑的智者，在静静地诉说着人生的哲理。我非常期待这本书能够带给我深刻的思考，能够让我对生命、对爱、对信仰有更深层次的理解。它的文字结构和叙事方式，也可能充满了独特性，用一种别具一格的方式来展现人物的内心世界和情感纠葛。

有imaginary的成分在，不过很感人，最后一段太戳心了

版本都一样，太感动了。第一次顺利把那么多黑人英语读完，打算放假把啃不下的color purple捡起来读。

版本都一样，太感动了。第一次顺利把那么多黑人英语读完，打算放假把啃不下的color purple捡起来读。

第一部黑人女作家的小说~有诗意的情怀~猜黑人口语有做填字游戏和数独般的乐趣~终于看完了！

Janie居然一枪打死了tea cake，颇震撼啊。这是唯一的亮点