The Color Purple: Feminist Text?

In his study of contemporary American culture, Loose Canons: Notes on the Culture Wars (1992), Henry Louis Gates, Jr., notes that ‘works by black women novelists, especially Walker and Morrison, are selling in record-breaking numbers, in part because of an expanded market that includes white and black feminists as well as the general black studies readership.’1 The cross-cultural appeal of Walker’s The Color Purple is often attributed to her engagement with women’s issues that transcend class and race: Alison Light finds that the novel ‘can be popular with a whole range of women readers, cutting across the specificity of its black history, in its concern with family, emotionality, sexual relations, and fantasy life.’2 Judy Elsley affirms that Celie’s journey will strike a chord with all feminists: ‘Celie’s struggle is more dramatic than many women experience, but her journey is a familiar one. All of us in academia, especially those involved in feminist studies, are quiltmakers […] [w]e have a lot in common with Celie.’3