"Rebirth of a Nation": Hurston in Haiti

Zora Neale Hurston's imperialistic political rhetoric in Tell My Horse seems incongruous with her previous cultural politics, but this work should be considered in relation to developments in Haitian ethnology. Where Hurston had previously believed that cultural populism could energize a democracy, her commitment to folklore was here linked with an authoritarian and racially essentialist political ideology. Hurston responded by severing her cultural analysis from her political assessments, a process apparent also in her later political commentary.