1、Literature Review A Study of Narrative of The Color Purple The Color Purple, Alice Walkers (1944-) masterpiece which illustrates the black people especially the black women under patriarchal and racial oppression has won the Pulitzer Prize and the American Book Award in 1983. After its publication,
2、the novel has caused a great sensation among feminists, the African American people, readers and critics. In abroad, Pifer and Slusser (1998) explore the mirroring scene in The Color Purple. After studying several mirroring scenes closely, which are important to Celies development of selfhood, Pifer
3、 and Slusser (1998) conclude that when Walkers test conflates needle and pen, then, it undermines the most basic binary structures of patriarchal society: male versus female, public versus private, empowered versus disempowered, spoken versus silent. (p.176). This sentence unveils many contradiction
4、s in many literary works, also provide the thread that I can use to explore the most essential and conflicting relationship in The Color Purple. Heglar (2000) focuses on the namelessness in The Color Purple to explore the black peoples tragic life. By revealing the fact that mens surnames are withhe
5、ld or erased whereas most females are given full names, Heglar (2000) concludes that Walker uses_as a sign of the ultimate powerlessness of patriarchal conceptions for men. Walker reverse traditional signification and gives surname as a sign of their power as nonmatriarchal alternatives to transform
6、 the patriarchal system fo r women. These works not only offer me abundant academic views about The Color Purple, but help me to have a better understanding about the novel and its author. It is really helpful and useful when I prepare the thesis. As a pioneer of feminist narrative theory, Lanser（ 2
7、002） explores the narrative voice of The Color Purple. Lanser compares the first person narrator of The Color Purple and those of the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God（ 2002） , she concludes that the epistolary form not only is the opportunity for heroine Celie to vent, but also wins the privacy fo
8、r all the African American female. Lanser holds that The Color Purple is the turning point in the history of Narrative Voice. Another book that benefits me a lot is the Reading Narrative（ 2002),one of Millars works about narrative theory. This book provides me polyphony, which I can use to analyze T
9、he Color Purple in terms of different addressers: Celie and Netty. In addition, Cutter tries to analyze the rape archetype in The Color Purple by introducing a raped girl Philomelas story. Cutter (2000) also points out that Walker does more than simply allow Philomela to speak within the confines of
10、 patriarchal discourse. Walkers novel revises the mirth of Philomela by creating a heroines test that reconfigures the rhetorical situation of sender-receiver-massage and articulates celies movement away from an existence as a victim in a patriarchal plot toward a linguistic and narratological prese
11、nce as the author/subject of her own story. (p. 163) Apart from the above studies, there are many researches about the novel in China. For instance, Ma Yue looks into the language features, character image and womenism in The Color Purple. Then Ma Yue（ 2009） points out the womenism she has proposed
12、are affirmed in the novel.(p.80) Womenism is put forward by Alice Walker. She points out that feminism is suitable to the white female. Black female suffers from double discriminations: racial and sexual discriminations, whereas the white females suffer from the sexual. In order to make a good readi
13、ng of The Color Purple, it is important to pay attention to the difference of feminism and womenism. The Color Purple has been translated into Chinese a long time ago. The translator Tao Jie made a comment in the preface of The Color Purple. She made a comprehensive evaluation from the content, epis
14、tolary form, narrative, figure of speech and symbolism in the novel. From her brief and precise comment, I learned that epistolary genre is very popular during 18 century in England, which is usually used by male to descript female. Walker overturned this tradition by writing this novel as a female
15、writer. It is an overturn to the male act. At the same time, it is certain womans writing rights. Celie is a reticent girl in The Color Purple. That writing to her sister Natty is her only way to vent in life. Tao Jie finds that the sentences and language written by Celie gradually become complicate
16、d and delicate. She possesses extraordinary conversation and deep thoughts. She can even express her feeling smoothly when her lover Shug fell into love with another boy. All these small but important changes are discovered by Tao Jie. Her finding helps me a lot in writing the thesis well. Li Jing (
17、2008) has analyzed The Color Purples subversive “quilt like” narrative structure and its personal voice mainly in the light of feminist narratology theory. She studies the two major textual features designed by Walker: the epistolary form and the fixed internal focalization in a first-person narrati
18、ve. She points out Walkers writing essence in the novel: aesthetic value and distinctive way of expression are worthy to be noticed. Besides the major books mentioned above, I also find many other academic works so as to support my thesis and to successfully finish my thesis. I believe that if I can
19、 make the best use of these materials and make strenuous efforts to explore the information in the books, I can and will do a good job in the thesis. References: 1Bell, B. The Contemporary African American Novel M. Peking: Foreign Language Teaching And Reseach Press, 2007. 2Cutter, M. J. Philomela S
20、peaks: Alice Walkers Revisioning of Rape Archetypes in The Color Purple J. Melus. 2000(l 25): 161-180. 3Heglar, C. “Named and Namelessness: Alice Walkers Pattern of Surnames in The Color Purple” D. South Florida U, 2000. 4Selden, R. Widdowson, P &Brooker, P. A Readers Guide to Contemporary Literary
21、Theory M.Peking: China Ocean University Press, 2004. 5Martin, w. Recent Theories of Narrative M. Peking: Peking University Press, 2006. 6Ma Yue. “The Romanism Incarnated in The Color Purple” J. China Academic Journal Electronics Publishing House, 2009, (04): 80. 7兰瑟 (Lanser,S.S.).虚构的权威 M.黄必康译 .北京：北京大学出版社， 2002. 8李静 .颠覆的艺术：论艾里斯沃克紫色的叙述结构和叙述声音 D.硕士学 位论文，上海交通大学， 2008. 9米勒 (Millard, J.). 解读叙事 M.申丹译 . 北京：北京大学出版社， 2002. 10沃克 (Walker,A.).紫颜色 M.陶洁译 .南京：译林出版社， 2008.
