Introduction to Literary and Cultural Studies The Color Purple

About Alice Walker: - Alice Walker = Afro-American Author - Alice Walker is not a classical author - She was born and raised in the south of the USA in Georgia - She comes from a family of former Slaves -> that's the main reason why she wrote "The Color Purple" - The Book is a slave narrative (Neo-Slave Narrative) = American Subgenre - Won the Publizer Price for "The Color Purple" Historical Backround of Slavery: - Refers to the cotton industry - black peole where taken from Africa to Europe and the south of America in order to work there (usually on plantations) - "The middle passage" = Key term (Refers to the so called "Triangular" - The slave trade took place from the 16th-19th century - Slavery started mainly in Great Britain - about 16.000.000 slave had been transported -> millions died on the ships of thirst, hunger or diseases - The Atlantic = the center of violence dispersal of black people (= People from African heritage) - 19th century: Abolition of slavery (slavery still existed) - ALWAYS KEEP IN MIND: the history of slavery has always been transmitted by colonists and white people so it is in their point of view and not from the black people's point of view - Slave narrative = first attempt of blacks to write their own story, a representation of possible incidents during the time of slavery (one possible interpretation of the history of slavery, not a historical report!!!!) - "The Color Purple" = a Neo-Slave Narrative: Neo-Slave Narratives are more fictionalized that slave narratives. - formal structure: it is an epistolary novel (= Briefroman) - The first Epistolary Novel was written by Samuel Richardson ("Pamela") in the 18th Century (Sentiment: new 18th century Ideal) Why does Walker use the epistolary novel? - Celie has nobody else to talk to so she writes to God (plot level) - the reader gets the feeling to read something private and intimate, like a very private diary - because of authenticity (as a stradegy) -> there seems to be no gap between the reader and the writer; the reader becomes involved in Celie's personal monologue to God. - epistolary novels are more emotional that regular novels - each letter is a stay in itself -> better access - Nettie writes much more elaborate so Nettie and Clie can be highly seperated by their writing

Why does Celie write to God? - Because she is only allowed to write to him (page 1) - Characteristic for Neo-Slave Narrative: The desire to tell one's own story, to be heared, to find a voice - During the book Celie changes, her attitude towards God changes. - She even loses her faith - There are 50 letters written by Celie and letters from Nettie - They are imaginary and fictional letters, that never even fulfill their purpose, bit still the feeling of being heared is enough - There are about 90 total, the last letter is "dedicated to everything" -> Celie's belief has changed in the end God can be in Everything Why does Celie belive that God is white (at the beginning)? - because the bible says so - because of history books Alice Walker believes in "The Spirit" (before preface mentioned in Book") an eternal spirit a genderless God (her own one) the exact opposite of the white, male God she believes in the female spirit as well

Literature Critisism: - Gerard Genette: perspective of narrator: - covert narrators - 2 narrators - fragmental text consisting of 90 extradiegetic stories; succession of 90 extradiegetic stories - the 2 narrators are homodiegetic, overt, and auto - there are 2 focalizers (variable focalisation, different perspectives)

Themes & Symbols of the Book: - development (inner, personal, psychological)

- Sex/Masturbation (America was shocked when the Novel was published - God - The Color Purple development Shug Avery is important for the development of all figures Celie discovers her body with the help of Shug Celie is being reconcited in the end (last letter) She comes to terms with society The Color Purple = Novel of Development

Main Theme of the Text: Woman/Female Bonding Why did Alice Walker wrote "The Color Purple"?: - the book is part of her life; her life is whithin the book - "To the Spirit: without whose assistance..." - Another Interpretation: The Semiotic Approach: Walker combines her own Identity with the identity with the identity of the book - semiontics: Everything is a text, a sign, reality is textually constituted; language is arbitrary, signs are everywhere around us -> when these signs run through us, they're leaving a trace at the end of the sign - signs constitute reality and meaning assumption: reality consists of signs, you can write this reality with the help of words - one possible question for interpreting of the text: How is the text itself used to create reality? - Walker's approach: The womanist Approach: - in the book the acting females come together, the form a bondage - this could not have been done by Celie alone 1st Concept: by G. Spivak (= most well-known postcolonial theorist with Edward Said, Homi H., Bhaba): The Concept / Theory of the subaltern: (Theory from Marxism; the Hindu tradition of widow burning derived from this) - Somebody does not have a voice of his/her own; somebody who is talked out of everything by everybody like Celie 2nd Concept: by G. Spivak The double colonisation of women or woman as double colonised subjects - during the time of colonisation woman were suppressed by two instances: by the colonisers (sexually & abused) and by the men of their own culture - this can be compared with the power relations between the male and female protagonists in the Color Purple

3rd Concept: by Hlne Cixous The feminist theory of "writing the body" - "The Color Purple" is a book about female writing (writing as an important act) - Celie and Alice Walker are both females - the way Celie writes is parallel to the way she explores her body (at the beginning she does not even feel her body at all) 4th Concept: by Jaques Derrida The Concept of Phallogocentrism 1) Males have a Phallus => Power 2) Females don't => lack of power When you write, you constitute your body Freud and Lacon (Student of Freud): Penis envie Theory: - when we're born we have a unity with our mother (not through words but through emotions) - children do not recognize themselves in the mirror at first, only later (experiment with red dot on the forehead) - According to Lacon, children are starting a new identity when recognizing themselves in the mirror (contradiction of mirror image and themselves) - Symbolic order -> the linguistic competence to describe the world, to name it (Semiotics) - Celie's (Step-) father stands for this symbolic order, he has the competence to describe and create her world, she is not even able to name him at the beginning - Celie never really had a mother, so she has problems regarding her mirror picture - During the book Celie meets diverse "mirror images" (= other females) - She is desireing them as a perfect image for her own - Celie's mother is gone from the Psychoanalytical point of view: all females Celie meets are mother substitutes History vs Herstory? - shift from his story to her story - her story is a male History "The color Purple is a novel of development and education" - Males become only fragments of the text -> the female bonding is much more important - Because of female bonding Celie is gradually developing from loneliness to unity - A. Walker makes Celie have a voice on the story, the formal, the figural and the metaphorical level - "I've always been a good girl" (page1) -> symbolic order -> she's pleading for answers

Letter on Page 5: What does this mean for Celie? "I don't bleed no more" -> she can't be a woman anymore in the way men see her - this is positive, because it gives her the ability to find out about and develop her own femininity. she is leaving men's history behind -> on page 6 is the beginning of Celie's deveopment : Break from History to Herstory! - With Shug Avery: Her first positive Female Mirror Image - from that moment on she writes herself and her body - males don't have power anymore over Celie, even if they still rape her physically they don't rape her anymore emotionally - Shug Avery stands for Beauty, Independence from Men, and Strengh Metaphors / Symbols in the Book: - quilting: a typical American thing, part of the American Culture (American Woman did this all the time) - The quilt, composed of diverse patterns sewn together, symbolizes diverse people coming together in unity. Like a patchwork quilt, the community of love that surrounds Celie at the end of the novel incorporates men and women who are bonded by family and friendship, and who have different gender roles, sexual orientations, and talents.