The politics of visuality in Beloved and The Colour Purple

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dc.contributor.advisorYoung, Sandraen_ZA
dc.contributor.authorRoberts, Abbyen_ZA
dc.date.accessioned2017-10-04T14:23:02Z
dc.date.available2017-10-04T14:23:02Z
dc.date.issued2017en_ZA
dc.description.abstractThe brutal history of slavery in America makes literary engagement with slave experience a potent exercise. Contemporary writers seeking to engage with this history face many difficulties, writing in the wake of the traditional slave narrative which was characterised by limited perspective and reliance on externally verifiable factors. This dissertation considers two works, Beloved and The Color Purple, by Toni Morrison and Alice Walker respectively, authors who write against the template of slave narratives by offering intimate and subjective points of view to inform the story-making process. Drawing on visual theory, I consider the politics of visibility, that is to say, the privilege and disempowerment manifest in visual relations. I examine the ways in which visuality extends the efficacy of Morrison and Walker's fictional project, by contributing to a narrative form which privileges the interior life of its characters. Through their story-making process, the novels of my study offer the opportunity both to challenge and to extend an understanding of the politics of visuality. I examine how the novels encourage alternative lines of sight which, by means of their investment in an interior perspective, unsettle a disempowering visual binary and suggest a way for contemporary authors to write into the narrative gaps of history. An alternative perspective offers insight into the imagined lives of obscured or marginalised people and, ultimately, brings a fraught history into view in a way that is life-affirming and empowering.en_ZA
dc.identifier.apacitationRoberts, A. (2017). <i>The politics of visuality in Beloved and The Colour Purple</i>. (Thesis). University of Cape Town ,Faculty of Humanities ,Department of English Language and Literature. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/11427/25521en_ZA
dc.identifier.chicagocitationRoberts, Abby. <i>"The politics of visuality in Beloved and The Colour Purple."</i> Thesis., University of Cape Town ,Faculty of Humanities ,Department of English Language and Literature, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/25521en_ZA
dc.identifier.citationRoberts, A. 2017. The politics of visuality in Beloved and The Colour Purple. University of Cape Town.en_ZA
dc.identifier.ris TY - Thesis / Dissertation AU - Roberts, Abby AB - The brutal history of slavery in America makes literary engagement with slave experience a potent exercise. Contemporary writers seeking to engage with this history face many difficulties, writing in the wake of the traditional slave narrative which was characterised by limited perspective and reliance on externally verifiable factors. This dissertation considers two works, Beloved and The Color Purple, by Toni Morrison and Alice Walker respectively, authors who write against the template of slave narratives by offering intimate and subjective points of view to inform the story-making process. Drawing on visual theory, I consider the politics of visibility, that is to say, the privilege and disempowerment manifest in visual relations. I examine the ways in which visuality extends the efficacy of Morrison and Walker's fictional project, by contributing to a narrative form which privileges the interior life of its characters. Through their story-making process, the novels of my study offer the opportunity both to challenge and to extend an understanding of the politics of visuality. I examine how the novels encourage alternative lines of sight which, by means of their investment in an interior perspective, unsettle a disempowering visual binary and suggest a way for contemporary authors to write into the narrative gaps of history. An alternative perspective offers insight into the imagined lives of obscured or marginalised people and, ultimately, brings a fraught history into view in a way that is life-affirming and empowering. DA - 2017 DB - OpenUCT DP - University of Cape Town LK - https://open.uct.ac.za PB - University of Cape Town PY - 2017 T1 - The politics of visuality in Beloved and The Colour Purple TI - The politics of visuality in Beloved and The Colour Purple UR - http://hdl.handle.net/11427/25521 ER - en_ZA
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/11427/25521
dc.identifier.vancouvercitationRoberts A. The politics of visuality in Beloved and The Colour Purple. [Thesis]. University of Cape Town ,Faculty of Humanities ,Department of English Language and Literature, 2017 [cited yyyy month dd]. Available from: http://hdl.handle.net/11427/25521en_ZA
dc.language.isoengen_ZA
dc.publisher.departmentDepartment of English Language and Literatureen_ZA
dc.publisher.facultyFaculty of Humanitiesen_ZA
dc.publisher.institutionUniversity of Cape Town
dc.subject.otherEnglish in Literature and Modernityen_ZA
dc.titleThe politics of visuality in Beloved and The Colour Purpleen_ZA
dc.typeMaster Thesis
dc.type.qualificationlevelMasters
dc.type.qualificationnameMAen_ZA
uct.type.filetypeText
uct.type.filetypeImage
uct.type.publicationResearchen_ZA
uct.type.resourceThesisen_ZA
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