Fatemeh Farnia - Shiraz University, International campus
Farideh Pourgiv - Shiraz University
Parvin Ghasemi - Shiraz University

Having been born and lived as an African-American and experienced what it means to be the ‘other’, Zora Neale Hurston has written a realistic novel Their Eyes were Watching God (1937). In the present study, the issues of power and empowerment are to be analyzed. The adults are likely to impose their dominancy over each other and this situation is even more intense when it comes to the idea of racism and ethnicity. For instance, the white subjugate the black, and the black can do nothing but obey. In her Empowerment and Community Planning: Theory and Practice (2004) Elisheva Sadan introduces the theory of empowerment which is pertinent to sociology. However, it is possible to revise and modify this theory in order to have an acceptable theory of empowerment for literature and especially children’s literature. With theory of empowerment, the hierarchical power structure is subverted and the subjugated people are given power so that they can have their own voice and independency. The theory introduced in this study, investigates the concept of empowerment from two aspects: the concept of empowerment which is conveyed throughout the novel, and second, the fictive elements which the writer uses to express empowerment. This theory is being modified, but it is a good idea to introduce it to writers and those interested in literature in general. Therefore, by applying this theory to Hurston’s novel the researcher has tried to study empowerment in this novel. Has Hurston used any empowerment techniques for Janie and other African-Americans in general? Has she been successful? The paper yields Hurston’s theory of empowerment and the empowering techniques that she uses. As far as the empowering techniques are concerned, this paper subsequently confirms Huston as a successful novelist.

theory of empowerment, Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes were Watching God, power, otherness of African-Americans