Hill, Lynda Marion

PERSONAL:

Female.

ADDRESSES:

Office—Department of English, Temple University 1114 W. Berks St., Philadelphia, PA 19122-6090. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Temple University, Philadelphia, PA, assistant professor of English.

WRITINGS:

Social Rituals and the Verbal Art of Zora Neale Hurston, Howard University Press (Washington, DC), 1996.

SIDELIGHTS:

Lynda Marion Hill provides a close look at the life and work of one of America's most acclaimed black writers in her book Social Rituals and the Verbal Art of Zora Neale Hurston. Hurston was born in an isolated rural Florida town, but was later educated at Howard University and Bernard College, and eventually became a playwright, novelist, and folklorist. Hurston believed passionately in the importance of verbal expression, both as a means of performing art and also as a vital folkway for preserving African-American culture and passing it down through the generations. Social Rituals and the Verbal Art of Zora Neale Hurston provides numerous "fascinating" insights into the contexts of Hurston's body of work, her ideas about theater, and her fascination with voodoo, according to B.E. McCarthy in Choice. The book was also endorsed by Australia Tarver, who noted in the African American Review: "Hill emphasizes Hurston's ability to incorporate the skills of a social scientist, dramatist, and literary artist in one work. Hurston is thus able to be a dramatist in fieldwork reports, to be an ethnographer in her plays, and to be both in her short stories and novels." Tarver concluded that Hill "makes a laudable attempt to challenge her readers and to offer refreshing perspectives on Hurston."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

African American Review, summer, 1999, Australia Tarver, review of Social Rituals and the Verbal Art of Zora Neale Hurston, pp. 362-366.

Bookwatch, November, 1996, review of Social Rituals and the Verbal Art of Zora Neale Hurston, p. 9.

Choice, March, 1997, B.E. McCarthy, review of Social Rituals and the Verbal Art of Zora Neale Hurston, p. 1162.