Abstract

This thesis analyzes Zora Neale Hurston’s masterpiece, Their Eyes Were Watching God, from the perspective of post-colonial feminism. It focuses on criticizing the dual oppressions of race and gender discrimination upon black women, and demonstrating the heroine, Janie’s rebellion and the process of how she finds her own identity. The black women, a special group in America, not only have to face the race discrimination from the white people, but also have to suffer from the gender oppression from the black men. Through the analysis, it will shed a light on the understanding of the novel and claims the awakening of black women is inevitable. The work created a new female image, Janie, to call on the black women to rebel the dual oppressions and to pursue a beautiful world with race equality and gender harmony.

Key Words: post-colonial feminism  race  gender  rebellion

摘 要

本文试图运用后殖民女性主义批评理论来解读佐拉•尼尔•赫斯顿的杰作《他们眼望上苍》，重点批判黑人女性所遭受的种族与性别的双重压迫，向读者展现主人公珍妮如何通过勇敢反抗找到自身价值。黑人女性在美国是一个特殊的群体，她们不仅要遭受来自白人的种族歧视，还要忍受黑人男性对她们的压迫。通过分析，能使读者更好地了解该作品，并深刻认识到黑人女性的觉醒是必然的。作者塑造了一个崭新的女性形象——珍妮，目的是要号召黑人女性去反抗种族和性别的双重压迫，追求种族平等和两性和谐的美好世界。

关键词：后殖民女性主义 种族 性别 反抗

1 Introduction
Zora Neale Hurston is a famous African American woman writer in America. Her works mainly focus on the lives of blacks in America with many social issues such as racial and gender relationship. Their Eyes Were Watching God, one of her famous works, mainly demonstrates the awakening and self-realization of the black woman, Janie, and has become the milestone in the history of black female literature.
   1.1 Zora Neale Hurston
Zora Neale Hurston is a distinguished novelist, folklorist and anthropologist during the Harlem Renaissance in America. She was born in a black people family in 1891 in Eatonville, Florida, which was the first all-black town with no discrimination in the nation and became the setting of most of her works. When she was young, her mother always encouraged her to have great ambition.