Retrieving the voice of the ancestors: folktale narration in Hurston’s Mules and Men.

The purpose of this study is to analyze four tales from Mules and Men by Zora Neale Hurston, whose narratives suggest a subtle criticism of white supremacy, without directly subverting the master-slave relationship. Moreover, this essay argues that some aspects of Hegel's master-slave dialectic are echoed in the folktales, and highlights some modes of master-slave relationship featured in the stories. Even if we do not know whether Hurston ever read Hegel, what I attempt to suggest here is that there is a recurring theme referred to by both authors with reference to the master -slave relationship.