Alice Walker - The Color Purple

by Rachel Lister

Overview

Since its publication in 1982, The Color Purple has polarized critics and generated controversy while delighting many readers around the world. Rachel Lister offers a clear, stimulating and wide-ranging exploration of the critical history of Alice Walker's best-selling novel, from contemporary reviews through to twenty-first-century readings.

This Reader's Guide:
- Opens with an overview of Walker's work
- Provides a detailed consideration of the conception and reception of The Color Purple
- Examines coverage of key critical issues and debates such as Walker's use of generic conventions, linguistic and narrative strategies, race, class, gender and sexual politics
- Covers the reception and cultural impact of cinematic and musical adaptations, including Steven Spielberg's 1985 film and the recent Broadway production

Lively and insightful, this is an indispensable volume for anyone studying, or simply interested in, Alice Walker and her most famous work.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780230201866
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	02/20/2017
Series:	Readers' Guides to Essential Criticism , #33
Edition description:	2010
Pages:	192
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

RACHEL LISTER is Lecturer in the Department of English Studies, University of Durham, UK.
RACHEL LISTER is Lecturer in the Department of English Studies, University of Durham, UK.

Table of Contents

Author's Note x

Acknowledgements xi

Introduction: The Color Purple 1

Chapter 1 The Conception and Reception of The Color Purple 7

Chapter 2 Defining The Color Purple: The Question of Genre 27

Chapter 3 Language and Narrative Poetics in The Color Purple 48

Chapter 4 Language and Subjectivity in The Color Purple 61

Chapter 5 Reading Race in The Color Purple 74

Chapter 6 Class and Consumerism in The Color Purple 89

Chapter 7 The Color Purple: Feminist Text? 104

Chapter 8 Gender and Sexuality in The Color Purple 123

Conclusion 141

Notes 146

Select Bibliography 165

Index 173

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

In this thought-provoking volume, Lister provides a crucial framework to enhance our understanding of Walker's controversial, award-winning novel, and to generate further debate and interest in Walker scholarship.' – Loretta G. Woodard, Marygrove College, USA

Editorial Reviews

"In this thought-provoking volume, Lister provides a crucial framework to enhance our understanding of Walker's controversial, award-winning novel, and to generate further debate and interest in Walker scholarship." Loretta G. Woodard, Marygrove College"

From the Publisher