on ‘Mule Bone: A Comedy of Negro Life’ by Zora Neale Hurston and Langston Hughes and the complete story of the Mule Bone controversy’
edited with introductions by George Houston Bass and Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
‘Another Bone of Contention: Reclaiming Our Gift of Laughter’ by George Houston Bass
“In her writing of Afro-American folklore, Zora Neale Hurston has cited the art of laughter as one of black folks gifts to American culture.” (p1)
Hughes & Hurston used “the vernacular tradition” as the foundation for their drama
“Hughes and Hurston, in other words, were drawing upon the black vernacular tradition to “ground” their drama… but also to “extend” the vernacular itself.” (p20)
“The play’s effect depends largely on the devices of verbal improvisation— sounding, rhyming, woofing— that are centra to Afro-American folklore.” (p176)
“… Hurston and Hughes were attempting to dramatize the “oral-aural worldview” of a black community that contrasts with the typographic-chirographic structure of white middle-class thought. The contest is a ritual, designed to defuse the violence implicit in the conflict, to channel the aggression into mental rather than physical terms.” (p182)
LETTERS
Zora Neale Hurston in a letter to Langston Hughes, January 20, 1931 (p223)
“P.S. How dare you use the word “nigger” to me. You know I don’t use such a nasty word. I’m a refined lady and such a word simply upsets my conglomeration. Whaat do you think I was doing Washington all that time if not getting cultured. I got my foot in society just as well as the rest. Treat me refined.”
Zora Neale Hurston in a letter to Charlotte van der Veer Quick Mason, January 20, 1931 (p226):
“ I wish it were possible for Locke to get him before you and then call me in and et him state his claims.
But my nigger mess aside, I hope that you are well as can be expected and that your dear C. is the same.”
Carl Van Vechten in a letter to Langston Hughes, August 17, 1942 (p279):
“In many ways a vivid and extraordinary story… I’ve also been reading many Negro letters for Yale, including the correspondence re Mule Bone which includes letters from YOU and Zora and Barrett H. Clark and Lawrence Langner and Theresa Helburn. It’s a pretty complete tae and your letter regarding Zora’s tantrum in your mother’s room in Cleveland is wonderful. She had a tantrum in my library at 150 West 55 Street too and threw herself on the floor and screamed and yelled! Bit the dust in fact. You woulda loved it, had it no concerned you…”
I love the way people talk about Zora— how excited they are to speak about her (good or bad).
READING LIST:
Du Bois, W.E.B. “Can the Negro Save the Drama?” Theatre Magazine XXXVIII (July 1923): 12, 68
Van Vechten, Carl “Nigger Heaven”