From Performativity to Agency: A Butlerian Reading of The Color Purple by Alice Walker

This study aims to investigate Judith Butler’s theory of Performative agency in Alice Walker’s The Color Purple. The performative concept argues that through repeated actions and discourses one will be able to gain the confidence and power to break the conventions that society imposes on its citizens. The key factor to becoming an agent is to resist pre-established norms and deconstruct the conventions. The female protagonist of the novel is passive in the patriarchal society. She is unable to control her surroundings or fulfill her desires. Since she is dissatisfied with her situation she starts to resist it. Throughout the novel, she is depicted as trying to change herself through the performance, or re-performance of repetitive discourses with the support and aid of other characters around her. By the end of the novel, she is an agent who is helping other passive characters to be able to alter their undesirable situations. The development of the character from a vulnerable person to an agent is the focus of this paper.

Keywords:

Judith Butler , Performative agency , Alice Walker , The Color Purple.