| The purpose of this dissertation research was to examine the necessity for sociological literary scholarship to aid in the contemporary pursuit of Black women toward becoming self-actualized. My attempt to illustrate this necessity and to develop pedagogy of self-actualization was through an interpretative, reflective literary biographical study of Zora Neale Hurston [1891--1960], a Black female author, whose life and works during her lifetime and post-death, was contextualized as problematic and contradictory, yet also instructive and evolving. As shown in the study, these same qualities of being contradictory and self-actualized simultaneously reflect the experiences and cultural frameworks of meaning for Black women today but are discussed under modernized terminology and varied approaches of ferreting out the social constructs that have historically and systemically immobilized, de-intellectualized, and devalued their voices. Contemporary conversations persist for Black women as a means of self-empowerment and survival.; This study chronicles the actions and progressive attitude of Zora Neale Hurston as her philosophy and anthropological sense of culture allowed for literary productions that spoke against the oppressive social and political structures for Black women at pivotal times in American history. Her life story proves instructive for contemporary Black women as an epistemic example of (1) identifying and amplifying their voices in volatile times in which multiple and competing ways of knowing and understanding exist; (2) clarifying their positionality as Black women on issues such as politics, religion, and philosophy; and (3) moving beyond their circumstances of pain and suffering as well as not becoming victims of/to them.; Ultimately the goal of this dissertation study is that active engagement with literature, including imaginative as well as autobiographical works that feature experiences and "stories" of black women, provide a contemporary mode of self-actualization that young black women may find themselves. |
