作者：金灵
【Abstract】The Power-Discourse Theory composed an important part in French ideologist Michael Foucault’s whole power system. According to Foucault， it is power that generates discourse， which constructs the theme， set the manner of discussing on one topic and defines people’s identity. Those who are economically and socially superior group also grasp the power of speech. They tend to have more say and oppress the minorities who try to utter their own voices. All those traits get full demonstration in Zora Neale Hurston’s representative novel Their Eyes Were Watching God. Janie Crawford， heroine of the novel， makes all the efforts fighting against oppression from a racial and patriarchal society and uttering her own voice in her process of establishing her identity. This essay tries to apply the Power-Discourse Theory in analyzing Janie’s process of identity assertion in order to make clear the major concept of this theory.
【Key words】Power-Discourse Theory； Their Eyes Were Watching God； Janie
【作者簡介】金灵，天津体育学院运动与文化艺术学院。
1. Power-Discourse Theory
Michel Foucault’s Power Theory is a literary response to the changes emerged in the 1960s from the exploration of the inner structure of knowledge to deconstruct this closed institute. Accompanied with the movement of feminism， many principles and concept from Foucault’s theory， such as Power-knowledge Concept， Power of Discourse Principle etc， have been borrowed and absorbed into the study of women’s culture and ideology and formed the so-called “Foucault’s Feminism”.
The Power of Discourse Theory composed an important part in Foucault’s whole power system. According to Foucault， it is power that generates discourse， which constructs the theme， set the manner of discussing on one topic and defines people’s identity.（福柯 徐宝强，袁伟选编 话语的秩序 56） In Hurston’s age， the power of discourse is in the charge of the whites as well as the black men. Black women， in the contrary， are oppressed and made silence. By adopting the Power of Discourse Theory， the author of this paper tries to analyze Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God， and elaborates how the protagonist， Janie Crawford， is disciplined by the disciplinary power of the 1960s American society and how she reacts to and fights against in order to seek her own power of discourse and secure her own rights and identity.
2. Zora Neale Hurston and Their Eyes Were Watching God
Zora Neale Hurston produces an eclectic body of works that includes an autobiography， novels， short stories， plays， articles and collections of folklores. Among her books， Their Eyes Were Watching God garnered attention and controversy at the time of its publication， and has come to be regarded as a seminal work in both African and American literature and women’s literature. Not catering for the tendency of African American protest novels and the demand for “primitiveness” of her patroness， Hurston created works that gradually slipped into obscurity. Grown from a colored origin， she wanted to analyze race without being reduced to race. In her works，， Hurston not only analyzed the discrimination black females received from the whites， but also explored the oppression coming from the black males. Her description of “race within race” annoyed both white people and black males. Hurston was almost forgotten by the readers. It was not until the development of the feminist movement， that critics began to pay attention to Hurston and her works again.
