Sites of Resistance: The Subversive Spaces of Their Eyes Were Watching God

Abstract

This article uses spatial theory to examine the political dimensions of porch space in Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937). By tracing Janie Crawford's increasing ability to locate and negotiate political space, readers may develop a deeper understanding of the complex discourses of gender and race at the heart of the novel. The article draws upon Michel Foucault's concept of the heterotopia to discuss how individuals may locate, produce, and utilize spaces of resistance to challenge dominant discourses of race and gender. Janie's ability to engage subversive heterotopic space allows her to contest the dangerous political projects that marginalized African Americans and women in the South in the early part of the twentieth century. Divided into three sections—porch space, psychological space, and narrative space—the paper follows Janie's movement from the masculine-controlled front porches of Eatonville to the private, intimate space of the back porch, where she produces narrative space that moves her (and us) beyond the confines of physical place. Developing an understanding of the liminal space of the front porch—and its ability to facilitate verbal exchanges that move beyond rigid binary thinking—is integral to how she later begins to dismantle the interior and exterior dimensions of her psyche, which she understands in distinctly spatial terms. She projects this complex spatial practice through the materiality of her body, which she learns to utilize as a heterotopic space. Finally, Hurston's heteroglossic narration encourages readers to engage the text as a heterogeneous space, one that parallels and reflects the discursive political dimensions of our cultural landscape.