Date of Award

Spring 2026

Document Type

Open Access Dissertation

Department

English Language and Literatures

First Advisor

Seulghee Lee

Abstract

Three women authors, Laura Middleton, Julia Peterkin, and Zora Neale Hurston, are responsible for the creation of some of the most important Gullah Geechee literary images in the 1920s and 1930s. By examining the historical moments and movements which were active while these women were writing, it is obvious why these women are at the center of this conversation. Each of these women’s writing plants the seed for a Renaissance of Gullah Geechee representation. While Middleton's work never gets published, her documentation of black life in South Carolina for the Federal Writers' Project worked as a counter narrative to texts and ethnographic information which came before. Peterkin's work helps to solidify existing stereotypes on black and Gullah Geechee life in South Carolina and provides an example of the work that Black writers were responding to and trying to correct during this historical period. Hurston's use of anthropological research coupled with her propensity for storytelling and the incorporation of Gullah Geechee cultural spiritual practices position Hurston as a Gullah Geechee woman author. Both Middleton and Hurston's use of the anthropological to infuse their writing helps to create counter narratives and counter images to Black and Gullah Geechee life in South Carolina during the 1920s and 1930s while Peterkin's writing was viewed as anthropological and worked with existing black stereotypes to create new ones. By closely examining this period, it shows that these women authors and their works are the catalyst for more authentic representation of Gullah Geechee people and culture both during and after this historical period.

Rights

© 2026, Raven Mariah Gadsden

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