The Renewal In Carnival

Zora Neale Hurston is universally acknowledged as the Mother of Black Female Literature of America and one of the greatest writers during the Harlem Renaissance. Of Hurston's four novels and more than 50 published short stories, plays, and essays, Their Eyes Were Watching God is the best-known one. Though the novel was not universally praised by Hurston's peers, today it has come to be regarded as a seminal work in both African American literature and women's literature. Critics began to really focus on this novel from the 1970s. It has been admired by African-Americanists for its celebration of black culture and dialect and by feminists for its depiction of a woman's progress towards self-awareness and fulfillment. Studies on Their Eyes Were Watching God are mostly concerned about artistic style, black culture, religion, symbolism aside from common topics such as race, gender roles and self-actualization of black women.This thesis attempts to apply Mikhail Bakhtin's carnival theory to a study of the main carnivalized features shown in Their Eyes Were Watching God. It presents Hurston's positive attitude toward the future harmonious state of the black community, and even the whole human beings in addition to her advanced feminist consciousness.This thesis consists of four chapters.Chapter One is a brief introduction to Zora Neale Hurston and the novel under discussion, a brief summary of the plot, the situation of studying at home and abroad and the objectives of this thesis.Chapter Two gives a concise introduction to Bakhtin's theory of carnivalization. It defines the three key terms—carnival, carnival sense of the world and carnivalization—and gives a detailed presentation of the main carnivalized features and elements. The last part is about the current research of the theory.Chapter Three, as the main part of this thesis, is divided into four parts, according to the main carnivalized features such as festiveness, popularity, ritualization, duality and the spirit of subversion. Each part stresses on the analysis of the carnivalized elements, including the carnival square, square language, the rituals of crowning/decrowning, the carnivalized characters, the carnivalized laughter and the carnivalized connotation of death. Through the analysis of these elements, the appropriate carnivalized features can be well concluded, which are instrumental in catching the theme and main spirit of the novel.Chapter Four concludes that Their Eyes Were Watching God is a typical carnivalized novel. The carnivalized features prove that Hurston has transcended a black woman's gender and ethnic consciousness,and began to focus on the survival state of the black community and the whole human beings. This expanded focus well displays her positive expectation of establishing a diversified world and realizing the harmonious co-existing state.