The colour purple context

What's womanism

The emergence of a new form of feminism in the 1970s and 1980s

What did womanism claim

Claimed that racism class oppression and sexism were interrelated arguing traditional white based feminism could not address the unique experience of black women

How many black households were located in rural places

3/4 of black households were located in rural places

Why was living in rural places bad for black women

harder to leave abusive situations due to a lack of resources and insufficient investment by the government in these areas, schools given less funding to keep black people uneducated and limit their advancement in society

What did the jim crow laws do

Legalise segregation in 1870s

Where was segregation legalised

Churches buses schools hospitals

What ideal in America instilled gender roles

The nuclear family ideal emphasised gender roles - men expected to have control of the family and status over women

What percentage of African Americans still lived in the southern US in 1900

90%

When was slavery established in Virginia by British officials

1750

What are the stats of men and women who reported to an occupational census that they were a farmer or labourer

About half of black men and 35% of black women reported they were a labourer

What was walker a follower of and what did she fight to do

An avid follower of Martin Luther King Jr and fought to end segregation of black Americans in the 70s

How does Walker describe her grandfathers and its relation to the expression of gender roles in the color purple

"batterers, womanisers, alcoholics, all of that."

Why did Walker fight so passionately to end segregation

Due to her illegal marriage with melvyn levanthal who was white

Where and when was Walker born

Born in Georgia in the Deep South of the USA in 1944

When was the Color purple written

1982

What did alice Walker grow up during?

grew up during the apartheid with her childhood experiences stemming from racism directly informing the novel

What cultivated her love for reading and writing

blinded in one eye from a childhood accident leading to isolation

What are the writer in terms of black vernacular influenced alice Walker?

Zora Neale Hurston

What was normalised within patriarchal structures?

Domestic violence and sexual abuse

What was the societal shift during the 1930s and 1940s in terms of gender?

The 1930s and 1940s saw shifts in gender roles during the war years with women increasingly involved in male dominated Work

What does the epistolary form allow?

It allows for deep psychological insight and the reclamation of voice for marginalised character

What cultural shift was there in 1982 publishing?

There was increasing black feminist literature like Audre Laude in circulation

Who and how was the novel criticised?

It was criticised by some black male writers for its negative betrayal of abusive black men

What post colonialist theorist coined colonial mimicry?

Homi Bhabha

What is colonial mimicry?

When colonised people are taught to mimic their oppresses, however they are not fully accepted and constantly measured against an unreachable goal

How was Christianity introduced in America?

It was introduced by white colonisers

What's the significance of the idea of white Jesus and white God and how was this utilised to oppress

used to justify white superiority and oppress black people, especially in the American South

How was religion and religious doctrine often manipulated?

Bible verses were often twisted to support slavery and male dominance, especially in southern states

What legal protection did women have in the 20th century?

Very little legal protection against rape and domestic violence

What does Walker reveal through Harpo and Mr.'s relationship in terms of abuse and toxic masculinity?

Many men learnt toxic behaviour from their fathers showing how abuse is passed down

What did colonisation do to African communities like the Olinka

forced western values on African communities, undermining or replacing traditional African beliefs and systems with their own under the guise of Western improvement