In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

  • The Rutledge Prize 2014For Graduate Students Giving Papers at the SCLA Conference

Each year the SCLA offers a prize of $500 for the most promising work presented at its annual conference by a graduate student. The essay is also considered for publication in The Comparatist.

You may submit a paper for consideration for this award by sending it as an email attachment to the SCLA vice president. The deadline for submissions is January 15, 2016 with the prizewinner to be announced in the 2016 issue of The Comparatist. Send to: Prof. Heather Hayton, hhayton@guilford.edu.

Since conference papers are often shortened from longer projects, students are encouraged to submit an essay-length version of their work that would be suitable for journal publication (no longer than 7,500 words). If publishable, prize essays normally appear in the next issue after the official announcement (i.e., a year and a half after the conference presentation), thus allowing ample time for feedback and advice from the editor.

rutledge prize winner 2014

Amanda Bailey, West Virginia University

“Necessary Narration in Their Eyes Were Watching God.”

Judges’ Citation

“Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God tells the tale of identity through the eyes (and the soul, and the heart) of a Southern black woman. The account of Janie’s rich, difficult, and steadily deepening poise as a woman has been inspirational for many readers, and the novel has acquired that most coveted of credentials—a book that is simply, and sincerely loved. Academe has duly followed, in a spirit of love and deference to its status, but then again, critique has followed no less duly, and it would be fair to say that Hurston’s novel is the subject of quite vigorous contention. As Amanda Bailey observes, the crux of the matter concerns the extent to which the novel confirms Janie’s narrative of self-empowerment, since a large portion of that narrative is recounted by others, and in particular, by her [End Page 428] friend Pheoby. For a woman finding her voice, Janie is not allowed much of a voice in her own storytelling. Bailey takes up that issue, sifts through the various critical accounts, and does so with a tact that a novel like this surely merits: let us not ruin an inspirational, moving, and well-loved work with the sophisticated crudities of narratology. What emerges from such sifting is Bailey’s own deftly sensitive response to Their Eyes Were Watching God—Bailey’s voice in a dialogue with Janie’s voice, with Pheoby’s, and all caveats for the absent (or putatively ‘dead’) author duly entered, with the voice of Hurston herself. A model essay, therefore, which balances academic critique and judicious homage to a great work of literature.”

Harry C. Rutledge, Emeritus Professor of Classics at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and an internationally recognized classicist, was the guiding spirit behind the founding of the SCLA March 28–30, 1974. He served as President, Board Member, and Conference Coordinator, but is best remembered for his enthusiasm in encouraging comparative work of all kinds. He also helped inspire the founding of The Comparatist.

[End Page 429]

...

pdf

Share