TCP + FG: Critical Interpretations Flashcards
How does the psychoanalytic criticism view The Colour Purple
Sexuality and Relationships:
* Celie’s traumatic encounters with sexual abuse and her evolving relationships with women like Shug Avery resonate with Walker’s own exploration of sexuality.
* Walker, who has identified as bisexual, may use Celie’s journey to confront societal norms and express her own struggles and triumphs in navigating her sexuality
Family Dynamics and Repressed Memories:
* Celie’s traumatic experiences with her father and the fragmented memories in the novel may echo Walker’s own family complexities
* While Walker’s experiences may not directly mirror Celie’s, the novel becomes a space for her to explore the impact of familial challenges
Shug Avery as a Symbolic Figure:
* Shug Avery, represents freedom and rebellion against societal norms. Shug’s character can be seen as a projection of Walker’s own desires for liberation and self-discovery
* Walker, who has been an advocate for breaking free from societal constraints, may use Shug as a symbolic embodiment of her own aspirations for individual and collective freedom
Trinya: “Alice Walker is interested in America, rather than Africa. Africa had been important only as a…
“referent and a counter-world to America’s negative Black images”
Willis: “the ability to raise questions, to objectify contradictions…
“is only possible when Celie begins writing her letters”
Radical Feminist view of Walker’s redaction of male names
- Walker redacts male names + tragedy is mirrored by the Black community as treatment carried out on women by men - allows Celie to open up about her sexuality
- Even God oppresses women so **Celie’s sexuality allows her to revolt + publicly rebel against social norms **- “not being tied to what God looks like, frees us”
Hook on why Sofia doesn’t recieve a happy ending
- Sofia’s unable to receive a happy ending as she doesn’t give into patriarchal norms + so remains oppressed
Worthington: “Walker force us to become a member of an oppressed race…
“as we struggle to hear the rhythm and sway of Celie’s mind moving”
Flint: “Although the novel dramatises the oppression of women by men, of blacks by whites…
“it also… celebrates the endurance and beauty to be found in everyday things.”
Bleiman: “In The Color Purple, the standard English third person narrative voice…
“has been entirely displaced by black voices.”
Walker: “To suppress Celie’s voice…
“is to complete the murder of her.”
Graham: “In setting up her successful ‘Folkspants’ business Celie is…
“liberating women from the tyranny of conventional dress codes”
Graham: “Celie’s ‘happy ending’ is seen as part of a larger freedom;
“Black Africa and Black America are united in the reunion of her family”
Playle: “a novel about Celie’s coming into being…
“of realising her own existence and developing her own identity”
Gates: “Celie, in her letters…
“writes herself into being”
McDowell: “exposing black women’s subordination within the nuclear family…
“rethinking and configuring structures, and placing utterance outside the father’s preserve and control”
Critics viewpoint on why TCP isn’t realistic
- Celie and Shug only succeed by** accepting a capitalist heterosexual society** giving into the “American Dream”
- Opposing other literary works that condemn this like F. Scott Fitzgeard’s “The Great Gatsby”, revealing how American society is ultimately worthless
