摘 要

《他们眼望上苍》是黑人女作家佐拉尼尔赫斯顿的代表作。作品讲述了一个黑人女性珍妮，经历三次婚姻，随着生活空间的扩展，从一个懵懂无知的少女蜕变成一个拥有独立女性意识的女人的故事。本文将重点从空间转换的角度来探究女主人公珍妮的女性意识是如何逐步成长的。

关键词：佐拉·尼尔·赫斯顿；《他们眼望上苍》；女性意识成长；空间转移

Contents

1. Introduction-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------1

2. Demonstration--------------------------------------------------------------------------------2

2.1 From White Slaveholder's Backyard to Logan's Big House--------------------------2

2.1.1 White slaveholder's backyard: lack of self awareness-------------------------------3

2.1.2 Grandma Nanny's land: projection on the pear tree as the imaginary self--------4

2.1.3 Logan's big house: growth of self awareness in the first marriage-----------------4

2.2 Grocery store in All-Black Town Eatonville--------------------------------------------5

2.2.1 All-Black Town Eatonville: under Jody's supervision-------------------------------6

2.2.2 On the porch of Grocery store: lack of verbal freedom-----------------------------6

2.2.3 In the grocery store: Janie's revolt in the second Marriage-------------------------7

2.3 From Everglades to Eatonville------------------------------------------------------------8

2.3.1 Everglades: a place for a free development of consciousness----------------------9

2.3.2 Back to Eatonville: Janie's self-realization in the third marriage-----------------10

3.Conclusion------------------------------------------------------------------------------------10

Work Cited---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------11

Bibliography-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------12

Spatial Change and Janie’s Growth of Female Consciousness

1. Introduction

Zora Neale Hurston plays a very important role in African American literature history. She was a novelist, a black folk legend, and an anthropologist. She was born in the southern United States and was an active member of the Harlem Renaissance. She spent her life fighting for the black culture, and her works play an irreplaceable role in the history of American literature. However, during her lifetime and 20 years after she dead, her works were not evaluated justly. People criticized and attacked them at that time. Fortunately, after the American feminist movement flourished in the 1970s, the literary world set off an upsurge to support and praise Hurston. And then, Hurston was regarded as a pioneer of the women's liberation movement.

During Hurston's life, she created many works, and Their Eyes Were Watching God is regarded as the most popular one. In this book, the author tells us a story about a black woman Janie, who used to yearn for love when she was a young girl, but after going through three marriages, Janie gradually realized that women's life value could not be realized on the basis of men and marriage. With the death of her last husband, Janie finally got rid of the shackles of the outside world and her female consciousness finally matured. Their Eyes Were Watching God is regarded as a milestone in the history of creating black female image, and is also taken as one of the most popular black literary classics. The works that created in women's liberation movement express the spirit of fighting for women's equality and human rights. It has a huge impact on the activity of today's new black American female writer in the literary world.

This thesis will introduce the growth of heroine Janie's women consciousness from the perspective of space change: The first part, from white slaveholder's backyard to Logan's big house, at the very beginning, Janie didn't have self-consciousness until she took photos with white masters. She started to yearn for love in grandma Nanny's land, and this marked Janie's femininity awaken. Janie's first marriage with her husband Logan was lived in Logan's big house. Grandma Nanny regarded this place as a refuge to Janie, but it finally became the place where Janie's dreams were broken in love and marriage, she wanted to get love from Logan, but Logan took her as a working tool, so she leaved Logan to escaped from this oppressive life, this marked Janie's way to find herself started from this time on. The second part, grocery store in all-black town Eatonville, Janie's second marriage with her husband Joe was in Eatonville. Eatonville was a small town without white people. Joe was a capable man, He became the mayor of the town and managed the town step by step. In this place, although Janie has a rich material life, Joe didn't allow Janie to speak and express her thoughts and opinions, he said Janie's position was at home, he didn't allow Janie to talk with people on the porch nor in the grocery store, Janie's life was full of restriction and oppression under Joe's control. Finally, in Joe's ward, Janie accused Joe of his oppression on her, and after Joe died, Janie got rid of his oppression. She can chat with people on the porch or in the grocery store without restriction, her self-consciousness grows quickly with the expand of her living space that she can control. In the third part, Janie enjoyed this kind of life by herself till she met with Tea Cake, Tea Cake took her to Everglades, it was an unrestricted space for blacks and women, and white domination and male supremacy were completely deconstructed. In this place, Janie realized her self-worth and self-identity. In fact, the transformation of the three different spaces not only witnessed a patriarchal oppression and racial discrimination in the process of liberation, but also reflected the space relationship of power change.

1. Demonstration

2.1 From White Slaveholder's Backyard to Logan's Big House.