Female Silence In Their Eyes Were Watching God And The Color Purple

The matrilineage between Zora Neale Hurston and Alice Walker is inescapably noticeable in African-American literature, which is most clearly demonstrated by the multifaceted affinities between Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God and Walker's The Color Purple. Female silence is a prominent theme in both novels. However, under the influence of the traditional Western tendency to valorize voice over silence, critics have mainly attended to the female protagonists'emerging voice, regarding their silence as a foil to voice. This thesis, by examining its genesis, progression and artistic presentation, brings female silence to the foreground, disclosing its multiple dimensions and its dynamic relationship with female growth. It also attempts to display the affinities and differences between Hurston and Walker's exploration of female silence in their representative work.This thesis consists of five parts. Chapter I introduces the matrilineage between the two writers and the importance of a comparative study of female silence in their respective work. Chapter II probes into three underlying causes of female silence in the two novels, namely, the presence of unequal"division", the existence of great"interpersonal rapport"and people's need for a personal space that allows deep contemplation, inviolable quietness and intense emotions. Chapter III attempts to explore two strands of female silence. The first strand follows the five stages that the female protagonists go through in order to break the silence of division and achieve the silence of unity. The other strand delineates the progression of female silence as a way of knowing and expression. Both strands of silence signify the female protagonists'transcendence, though on two different levels. Chapter IV focuses upon Hurston and Walker's artistic presentation of female silence. The last chapter concludes the thesis with a review of the bond between the two novels, and a brief account of the time influence that results in some of the differences between the two writers'exploration of silence.