In Search of the Color Purple: The Story of an American Masterpiece (Books about Books) - Hardcover

Tillet, Salamishah

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1419735306 ISBN 13: 9781419735301

Publisher: Abrams Press, 2021

Synopsis

Mixing cultural criticism, literary history, biography, and memoir in an exploration of Alice Walker’s critically acclaimed and controversial novel, The Color Purple

Alice Walker made history in 1982 when she became the first black woman to win the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award, both for The Color Purple. Published in the Reagan Era amid a severe backlash to civil rights, the jazz age novel tells the story of an African-American woman haunted by domestic and sexual violence.

Prominent academic and activist Salamishah Tillet combines cultural criticism, history, and memoir to explore Walker’s epistolary novel, and shows how it has influenced and been informed by the zeitgeist of the time. The Color Purple received both praise and criticism upon publication, and the conversation it sparked around race and gender still continues today. It has been adapted for an Oscar-nominated film and a hit Broadway musical. Through interviews with Walker, Oprah Winfrey, Quincy Jones, and others, as well as archival research, Tillet studies Walker’s life and the origins of her subjects, including violence, sexuality, gender, and politics. Reading The Color Purple at age 15 was a groundbreaking experience for Tillet. It continues to resonate with her―as a sexual violence survivor, as a teacher of the novel, and as an accomplished academic. Provocative and personal, In Search of the Color Purple is a bold work from an important public intellectual.

About this title

About the Author

Salamishah Tillet is a scholar, cultural critic, and activist. A professor at Rutgers University-Newark, she is a regular contributor to the New York Times. She lives in New Jersey.

From the Back Cover

Mixing cultural criticism, literary history, biography, and memoir in an exploration of Alice Walker’s critically acclaimed and controversial novel, The Color Purple

Alice Walker made history in 1982 when she became the first black woman to win the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award, both for The Color Purple. Published in the Reagan Era amid a severe backlash to civil rights, the jazz age novel tells the story of an African-American woman haunted by domestic and sexual violence.

Prominent academic and activist Salamishah Tillet combines cultural criticism, history, and memoir to explore Walker’s epistolary novel, and shows how it has influenced and been informed by the zeitgeist of the time. The Color Purple received both praise and criticism upon publication, and the conversation it sparked around race and gender still continues today. It has been adapted for an Oscar-nominated film and a hit Broadway musical. Through interviews with Walker, Oprah Winfrey, Quincy Jones, and others, as well as archival research, Tillet studies Walker’s life and the origins of her subjects, including violence, sexuality, gender, and politics. Reading The Color Purple at age 15 was a groundbreaking experience for Tillet. It continues to resonate with her?as a sexual violence survivor, as a teacher of the novel, and as an accomplished academic. Provocative and personal, In Search of the Color Purple is a bold work from an important public intellectual.

Edition details

• Publisher: Abrams Press
• Publication date: 2021
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1419735306
• ISBN 13: 9781419735301
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 224