Trapped in Double Katatonic Silence: A Postcolonial Perspective to ‘The Color Purple’
Abstract
There is a striking parallelism between feminist approaches and postcolonial theories. Just as a woman is considered to be a space to be penetrated, a colonised region reveals itself as an embodiment of a motherly space which is occupied by a coloniser country, as a fatherly place. In this sense, the colonised space - as woman - represents passivity whereas the coloniser place - as man - symbolises activity with respect to its actively functioning paternal means. This article deals with Walker’s novel, The Color Purple (1982), with respect to gender relations with a special touch on the double oppression of women in a colonial context, which opens the novel to the postcolonial feminist criticism.
References
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Christophe, Marc. The Color Purple: An Existential Novel: Critical Essays on Alice Walker. Ikenna Dieke ed. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1999.
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Irigaray, Luce (1977) “Sexual Difference” Modern Literary Theory: A reader. Phillip Rice and Patricia Waugh eds. New York: Oxford University Press Inc. 2001.
Irigaray, Luce (1981) “The Bodily Encounter with the Mother” Modern Criticism and Theory: A reader. David Lodge and Nigel Wood eds. 3rd ed. United Kingdom: Pearson Longman Education Limited. 2008.
Jenkins, Candice Marie. “Queering Black Patriarchy: The Salvific Wish and Masculine Possibility in Alice Walker’s The Color Purple” Modern Fiction Studies. Vol. 48, No: 4. Summer 2002. pp. 969 – 1000.
Mardberg, Maria. Envisioning American Women: Roads to Communal Identity in Novels by Women of Color. Diss. Studia Anglistica Upsaliensia 104: Uppsala. 1998.
McLeod, John. Beginning Postcolonialism. Manchester: Manchester University Press. 2000.
Monroe, Irene. “Response” Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion, Vol. 22, No.1, Spring 2006, pp. 107-113.
Spivak, Gayatri Chakravorty. (1986) “Imperialism and Sexual Difference”. Contemporary Literary Criticism: Literary and Cultural Studies. Davis, Robert Con and Ronald Schleifer, eds. 2nd ed. White Plains: Longman, 1989.
Spivak, Gayatri Chakravorty. “Can the Subaltern Speak? Speculations on Widow- Sacrifice." Wedge 7-8 (1985): 120-130. Pub. as Chapter 3 of A Critique of Postcolonial Reason: Towards a History of the Vanishing Present. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. 1999.
Walker, Alice. The Color Purple (1982) London: Women’s Press. 1983.
Bary, Peter. An Introduction to Literary and Cultural Theory. Manchester: Manchester University Press. 1995.
Bhabha, Homi K. “Of Mimicry and Man: The Ambivalence of Colonial Discourse." October 28 (1984): 125-133. JSTOR. Web. 25 Jan. 2010.
Christophe, Marc. The Color Purple: An Existential Novel: Critical Essays on Alice Walker. Ikenna Dieke ed. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1999.
Cixous, Helene. (1976) “Castration or Decapitation?” Contemporary Literary Criticism: Literary and Cultural Studies. Davis, Robert Con and Ronald Schleifer, eds. 2nd ed. White Plains: Longman, 1989.
Cixous, Helene. (1975) “Sorties”, Modern Literary Theory: A reader. Phillip Rice and Patricia Waugh eds. New York: Oxford University Press Inc. 2001.
Cixous, Helene. (1976) “The Laugh of the Medusa”, Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society,
Vol. 1 No. 4 (Summer, 1976) pp. 875-893, The University of Chicago Press.
Gilbert, Sandra. (1985) “Life’s Empty Pack: Notes Toward A Literary Daugtheronomy” Contemporary Literary Criticism: Literary and Cultural Studies. Davis, Robert Con and Ronald Schleifer, eds. 2nd ed. White Plains: Longman, 1989.
Heiland, Donna. Gothic and Gender. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing. 2004.
Irigaray, Luce (1977) “Sexual Difference” Modern Literary Theory: A reader. Phillip Rice and Patricia Waugh eds. New York: Oxford University Press Inc. 2001.
Irigaray, Luce (1981) “The Bodily Encounter with the Mother” Modern Criticism and Theory: A reader. David Lodge and Nigel Wood eds. 3rd ed. United Kingdom: Pearson Longman Education Limited. 2008.
Jenkins, Candice Marie. “Queering Black Patriarchy: The Salvific Wish and Masculine Possibility in Alice Walker’s The Color Purple” Modern Fiction Studies. Vol. 48, No: 4. Summer 2002. pp. 969 – 1000.
Mardberg, Maria. Envisioning American Women: Roads to Communal Identity in Novels by Women of Color. Diss. Studia Anglistica Upsaliensia 104: Uppsala. 1998.
McLeod, John. Beginning Postcolonialism. Manchester: Manchester University Press. 2000.
Monroe, Irene. “Response” Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion, Vol. 22, No.1, Spring 2006, pp. 107-113.
Spivak, Gayatri Chakravorty. (1986) “Imperialism and Sexual Difference”. Contemporary Literary Criticism: Literary and Cultural Studies. Davis, Robert Con and Ronald Schleifer, eds. 2nd ed. White Plains: Longman, 1989.
Spivak, Gayatri Chakravorty. “Can the Subaltern Speak? Speculations on Widow- Sacrifice." Wedge 7-8 (1985): 120-130. Pub. as Chapter 3 of A Critique of Postcolonial Reason: Towards a History of the Vanishing Present. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. 1999.
Walker, Alice. The Color Purple (1982) London: Women’s Press. 1983.
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2015-12-30
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Trapped in Double Katatonic Silence: A Postcolonial Perspective to ‘The Color Purple’. (2015). Journal of Narrative and Language Studies, 3(5). https://nalans.com/index.php/nalans/article/view/17
