Isis as Little Red Riding Hood: Illuminating Zora Neale Hurston's "Drenched in Light"

Abstract:This essay argues that Zora Neale Hurston's early short story "Drenched in Light" (1924) deploys the intertext of "Little Red Riding Hood" to frame the story of Isis. Casting the dilemma of the Black female artist and her desire to cross boundaries in the framework of Little Red, Hurston amalgamates European and African American folklore traditions, shifting the tale of Red Riding Hood to a trickster tale that empowers Isis. The Little Red framework is re-imagined in Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God, demonstrating the significance and accomplishment of "Drenched in Light" as a reflection of the Black artist courting white and Black patronage. This essay was written for the special collection titled "Children, Too, Sing America."