This is the fourth collage I am presenting here from my senior thesis on the brilliant literary figure Zora Neale Hurston; but chronologically it is actually the first piece I made earlier this year. For a project in Dr. Minrose Gwin’s class I read Hurston’s 1935 anthropological text “Mules and Men,” gave an oral presentation and developed this handout. Images are illustrations by early 20th century Mexican artist Miguel Covarrubias taken from the 1990 Harper & Row edition of “M & M”. To view a bigger, easier to read version, click here.

This collage demonstrates that Hurston divided her book into two parts; in part one she travels from New York City to her hometown of Eatonville, Florida to collect folktales. As pasted in the upper-left corner, Hurston describes Eatonville as “the city of five lakes, three croquet courts, three hundred brown skins… and no jail-house.” Also in the top left, I cut out a brief yet important sentence Hurston included in her introduction, about receiving financial help from her wealthy white patron Charlotte Osgood Mason. This was a somewhat troubled relationship which (as I learned from Robert Hemenway’s ZNH bio) included both intense connection and friendship, and increasing dependence and control. I paste part of one of my favorite tales in the bottom left, “Why the Waves Have Whitecaps” (pages 128-129). Many folktales Hurston documents present natural elements as people, and show people to be natural.

In part two, Hurston travels to New Orleans to learn hoodoo, or a more Americanized/commercial form of voodoo, from several practitioners. Her dedication to learning the hoodoo traditions is demonstrated in the initiation process she undertook, featured on the right-hand side of the page. Hurston describes her three-day fast, drinking her own blood mixed with that of other practitioners, and finally slaughtering a sheep as an offering to a higher power (page 199ff). Passages like these show Hurston as an active participant as opposed to a detached anthropological observer. On the bottom right I show one example of a spell, “To Make a Man Come Home.” Hurston includes an appendix of spells, conjure materials and herbal prescriptions in the back of “Mules and Men.”

The photocopied pictures are black-and-white, which I contrasted with bright letters for her name. ZNH was a very dynamic and spirited personality, so bright pinks and purples seemed right… I cut these letters out from ladies’ magazines like “O” and “Bust.” Thank you glossy publications!