Variations of the color purple
2020-11-30
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Since its publication in 1982, The Color Purple has been widely discussed. However, few of these analyses focus on the novel from a linguistic perspective. That is not altogether surprising considering that stylistics (the linguistic analysis of literature) has a contentious place in literary criticism. In part, this thesis aims to bridge the gap between linguistics and literary criticism by demonstrating how linguistics can aid in literary analysis. More specifically, however, the objective of this thesis is to answer the following research question: How does Alice Walker use language variation and for what purpose? My claim is that Alice Walker uses language variation to negotiate power, construct her characters’ identities, challenge the dominant culture, and expand the range of voices to be heard in American literature. To answer my research question, I collected data from all of Celie’s epistles in The Color Purple, which amounted to 47,057 words. In this corpus, I analyzed dialect usage and dialogue. The data quantify the language variation over the course of the novel. What I found was that Celie’s nonstandard dialect usage drops slightly over the course of the novel and she grows quantitatively in her conversations. Both of these represent her empowerment in her language. Ultimately, African American Vernacular English is a way for Celie and Walker to identify themselves and orient their position among speakers and authors who use Standard American English.
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Sociolinguistics , Alice Walker , The Color Purple , Stylistics , Linguistic analysis of literature , Sociolinguistic analysis of literature , Dialects , Registers , Linguistic variation , Race , Gender , American literature , Twentieth-century literature , Literary criticism , African American Vernacular English
Is The Color Purple (2023) A Remake Of The Original Movie?
Alice Walker’s acclaimed novel “The Color Purple” is receiving another silver screen adaptation. After Steven Spielberg brought the poignant coming-of-age story of young African-American woman Celie Harris to life in 1985 with his film adaptation of the book, fans are getting treated to a new vision through a 2023 film of the same name directed by Blitz Bazawule. Revisiting a classic isn’t anything too out of the ordinary for modern Hollywood, though some prospective viewers of the new version may be wondering whether it’s a remake of Spielberg’s 1985 version.
While the 1985 and 2023 versions of “The Color Purple” tell similar stories, the new film is crucially not a remake of the original one. In fact, outside of both taking the core narrative from Walker’s book, they have surprisingly little in common. One major difference is that the 2023 movie is not only an adaptation of the book, but also an adaptation of the musical “The Color Purple,” which has sporadically run on Broadway since the mid-2000s. If readers are familiar, a similar example would be the distinction in continuity between Peter Jackson’s “The Lord of Rings” films and Amazon’s “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” TV series.
2023’s The Color Purple still has some small connections to the 1985 version
While Blitz Bazawule’s new take on “The Color Purple” isn’t a remake of Steven Spielberg’s version, the two do share a couple small connections — mostly on the behind-the-scenes front. For one thing, the new movie was developed by the exact same production companies that made the original, those being Warner Bros. Pictures and Amblin Entertainment.
Arguably even more interesting is the shared creative talent between the two versions of “The Color Purple.” Spielberg and Quincy Jones, who served as a producer on the 1985 movie, are both back in a producer role for the new iteration. They are also joined by Oprah Winfrey, who appeared in the cast of Spielberg’s “The Color Purple” as Sofia and has worked as a producer for the stage musical that the second adaptation is based on.
Winfrey in particular had a great amount of creative input on developing the new take on the story, including working to find a fitting director to carry on the mantle. “Finding the right director was the most crucial part of the process, and Blitz, you have such a unique voice and a singular artistry,” the actor said at a 2023 CinemaCon panel (as reported on by Oprah Daily). “We knew you were the director to bring this version to the screen.”
