The Critique of Culture/Nature Dichotomy: Joe and Janie Starks in Their Eyes Were Watching God

Emerging in the late twentieth-century, ecocriticism is a mode of literary criticism that examines the ways in which literature and culture engage with ecological and environmental concerns. The culture/nature dichotomy in ecocriticism is one of the most multifaceted and complex concepts, referring to the ways in which human culture and the natural world have historically been conceptualized as separate and distinct entities. The hierarchical view of this dichotomy, culture as superior to nature, reinforces the notion of human exceptionalism, suggesting that nature exists primarily for human use. Given this, the primary aim of this study is to analyze representations of the culture/nature dichotomy in Zora Neale Hurston’s novel Their Eyes Were Watching God. In this research qualitative content analysis will be utilized to examine how Hurston depicts the culture/nature dichotomy in the novel and its inferences for themes of identity, autonomy, and self-discovery within the novel. Published in 1937, Their Eyes Were Watching God captures the essence of African American life in the early twentieth-century and explores the struggles of self-discovery of its protagonist, Janie Crawford as she tries to find her place in the face of societal expectations and power dynamics. It has been confirmed that culture/nature, recurring motifs throughout the novel, is represented by Joe and Janie in the novel, affirms the fact that there is a strong link between traditional gender roles and the culture/nature dichotomy.