Which author wrote 'Their Eyes Were Watching God' and helped shape Black women's literature in the 1930s?

• A. Zora Neale Hurston
• B. Maya Angelou
• C. Toni Morrison
• D. Alice Walker

Answer: (A)

Zora Neale Hurston wrote Their Eyes Were Watching God, published in 1937, and she helps shape Black women's literature in the 1930s by centering a Black woman’s voice and experience in a vivid, authentic way. Hurston blends folklore with novelistic storytelling, using Black Southern speech and rich cultural detail to follow Janie’s quest for self-definition, love, and independence. This approach gave Black women a literary voice that emphasizes personal agency and inner life, not just communal roles or hardship. Her work showed that Black women’s stories could be told with complexity, humor, and dignity, influencing later writers who continued to explore identity, desire, and resilience within their own cultural contexts. While Maya Angelou, Toni Morrison, and Alice Walker are pivotal to Black women’s literature, their landmark works emerged later, building on the foundations Hurston helped establish in the 1930s.