ABSTRACT
Zora Neale Hurston's "Characteristics of Negro Expression" debates during the Harlem Renaissance, many of which took up the value of African American vernacular culture, and the political value of replicating it in art. It is easy to see the pieces of Hurston's artistic output as variations on a theme: demonstrating the artistic value of African American vernacular expression. Hurston's fiction is often read for its anthropological content, and her more anthropologically focused works for the unique viewpoint she offers within them. Much of the power of "Characteristics" lies in how Hurston generates intellectual authority. Within Hurston's body of work, "Characteristics" is significantly overshadowed by her novel Their Eyes Were Watching God and, arguably, her book of black folklore, Mules and Men. Scholars have increasingly recognized the value of Hurston's essay for better understanding the debates of the Harlem Renaissance and African American aesthetics.
