ABSTRACT
In "Characteristics of Negro Expression" Zora Neale Hurston aimed to provide a framework for understanding African American culture, and in turn to vindicate its originality. Her first aim in the essay is to explain this world view and use it to properly contextualize black cultural expression. Her second aim is to properly transcribe African American speech. Hurston, however, acted as more than an anthropologist; she also participated in the folk culture she recorded. Rather than offering objective, distanced reporting, Hurston inserts herself into the narrative, recounting black folklore from her personal perspective. Structurally, Hurston's essay owes much to W. E. B. Du Bois's The Souls of Black Folk. Like Hurston's essay, Du Bois's book is both a collection of smaller portraits and an anthology of black cultural productions. Like Du Bois, Hurston blends all of these approaches as a means to establish her authority as an accredited translator of black folkloric material.
