Neo-Realism And The Construction Of Black Nationalism In The Color Purple

In contemporary American literature, Alice Walker is one of the most influential African-American female writers. Her masterpiece The Color Purple was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in1983for its profound implications and outstanding writing techniques. As an African-American, Alice Walker was fully aware of the misery of the black people and her writing has been deeply influenced by her personal experience. Therefore, the issues of African-Americans have been the main concerns in her The Color Purple. Meanwhile, since the1970s, neo-realistic literature has begun to rise, which provides Alice Walker with a wide range of writing techniques that are distinct from those of traditional realism.The present thesis aims to reveal the relationship between neo-realistic writing styles and the construction of Black Nationalism in The Color Purple. Through analyzing how Alice Walker utilizes the literary strategies to convey her political thought, the author of this thesis provides a fresh perspective to approach Alice Walker. It starts with a brief introduction to the emergence and development of Black Nationalism, and its influence on African-American literature. And it summarizes the characteristics of Alice Walker’s black nationalistic spirit and analyzes the characters and the plots in the novel from three aspects:political environment, black culture and religious faith, which are the reflections of Black Nationalism. Then it proceeds to discuss the literary construction of Walker’s black nationalistic thought through the analyses of language, narrative perspective, psychological description and epistolary style. Through employing the innovative writing skills, Alice Walker has successfully combined her literary and political agenda in The Color Purple.This thesis reveals the realistic significance of Alice Walker’s ideology. Her black nationalistic spirit reflected in The Color Purple has greatly encouraged African-Americans to achieve their self-liberation and self-independence. What’s more, through interpreting the novel from neo-realistic perspective, it gives a fresh insight into The Color Purple, which in turn will help deepen our understanding of Alice Walker’s innovation with the novelistic narrative and other neo-realistic works.