Journal of Literature, Culture and Media Studies

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The Eloquence of Silence in Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God


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1 Govt. Arts College (Autonomous), Salem-636 007, Tamil Nadu, India
     

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Silence is generally associated with powerlessness and inferiority. But actually, silence is much more than the absence of sound. This paper explores the centrality of the enigmatic and mighty subtlety of silence and its eloquence in Zora Neale Hurston’s novel Their Eyes Were Watching God. It also illuminates the complex nature of gender relations by comparing and contrasting men’s loud talk and women’s silent response. It pays attention to what the text does not say in addition to what it speaks. It shall excavate the often overlooked silence that constitute oppressed women’s language. It shall posit that silence is both an aesthetic and a political practice of resistance to oppression. In a nutshell, this paper is an effort to give voice to a full range of oppressed women’s experience.

Keywords

Silence, Eloquence, Language, Oppression, Resistance, Aesthetic, Patriarchal Discourse, Existence, Paradigms, Female Identity.
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  • The Eloquence of Silence in Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God

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Authors

R. Sheela Banu
Govt. Arts College (Autonomous), Salem-636 007, Tamil Nadu, India

Abstract


Silence is generally associated with powerlessness and inferiority. But actually, silence is much more than the absence of sound. This paper explores the centrality of the enigmatic and mighty subtlety of silence and its eloquence in Zora Neale Hurston’s novel Their Eyes Were Watching God. It also illuminates the complex nature of gender relations by comparing and contrasting men’s loud talk and women’s silent response. It pays attention to what the text does not say in addition to what it speaks. It shall excavate the often overlooked silence that constitute oppressed women’s language. It shall posit that silence is both an aesthetic and a political practice of resistance to oppression. In a nutshell, this paper is an effort to give voice to a full range of oppressed women’s experience.

Keywords


Silence, Eloquence, Language, Oppression, Resistance, Aesthetic, Patriarchal Discourse, Existence, Paradigms, Female Identity.

References