Toward a Black Feminist Archive of the Color Purple

Let’s try something. Also, it’s not the novel.

Follows that up with pictures of the novel: Courtesy of Google Images.

Aside from the dire straights that are being in academia, I think this is an interesting time for experimenting with the ways we do scholarship and reconsidering what constitutes ‘scholarship.’ We’re seeing shorter-form pieces of academic writing, more emphasis placed on the digital and public humanities for their door-widening (and relevance-boosting vis a-vis capitalist stimulation) modalities and flirtations with STEM and business fields, and more interplay with the creative. I find this experimenting phase exciting and relieving, as it gives me the confidence to move forward with this unconventional side quest for my research.

Without detailing too much at this time, for the last three-odd years, I’ve been studying the relationship between Black feminist theory and color theory. It began with examining the contemporary significance of the color purple across what I term for myself ‘Black feminist media.’ My Master’s thesis was on this topic, and I’m finally getting around to publishing some of the stuff I’ve written so far, including this blog post I wrote for Black Perspectives, “Womanist Theology and the Purple Perspective,” back in November. Though I’m now at the early stages of a new project with just recently starting an English PhD program, the…