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Every Tongue Silenced So One Voice Resounds: Redefining Zora Neale Hurston’s Legacy in Adapted Picture Books
- Children's Literature Association Quarterly
- Johns Hopkins University Press
- Volume 41, Number 4, Winter 2016
- pp. 365-383
- 10.1353/chq.2016.0044
- Article
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Abstract:
In 2004, noted authors including Christopher Myers and Faith Ringgold began adapting a collection of Zora Neale Hurston's posthumously published anthropological notes into children's picture books. In this article, I examine how these adaptive revisions of Hurston’s scholarly work often mask the complex oral and written history of African American folktales in favor of celebrating a limited portrait of Hurston. In analyzing the picture books’ text, source notes, and illustrations, I contend that they point to the nuanced politics of retooling the legacy of canonical authors in adapted picture books for children.