Seraph on the Suwanee

First edition (publ. Scribners)

Seraph on the Suwanee is a 1948 novel by African-American novelist Zora Neale Hurston.^[1] It is her last published novel, and was written after her publisher rejected two novels about black characters.^[1]

The novel is Hurston's only novel about white characters, exploring "white crackers" in Florida, attempting to create a "true picture of the South".^[1] The story follows the experiences of a young woman as she has a fraught relationship with her husband and family.^[2]

Seraph on the Suwanee has never been well received by African-American critics and scholars, who have often treated the novel as a "contrivance in Hurston's canon".^[3]

References[]

Further reading[]

• St. Clair, Janet (March 1, 1989). "The Courageous Undertow of Zora Neale Hurston's Seraph on The Suwanee". Modern Language Quarterly. 50 (1): 38–57. doi:10.1215/00267929-50-1-38. ISSN 0026-7929.
• Ward-Ellis, Jervette RaShaun (2011). She dared to challenge tradition: 'Seraph on the Suwanee,' Zora Neale Hurston's 'white novel,' and its literary foundation, Paul Laurence Dunbar's 'The Uncalled' (PhD). University of Memphis. Archived from the original on April 17, 2016.