Ask The Puma Research Guides: Color Purple

The Color Purple (the novel)

Alice Walker’s third novel, The Color Purple, was first published in 1982. Essentially about the triumph of good over evil, this 1983 winner of the Pulitzer Prize for fiction explores the theme of  ‘double repression’ of black women in American culture – repression by white society in general and then again by black men.

Call Numbers for Browsing the Shelves

• PS3573 .A425

Circulating Books – A Selected List

• Bloom, Harold (ed.). Alice Walker’s The Color Purple. 2000.  Call Number: PS3573 .A425 C6325 2000
• Walker, Alice. The Color Purple. 1985.  Call Number: PS3573 .A425 C6 1985
• Dieke, Ikenna (ed.). Critical Essays on Alice Walker. 1999.  Call Number: PS3573 .A425 Z6 1999
• Gates Jr., Henry Louis (ed.). Alice Walker: Critical Perspectives Past and Present. 1993.  Call Number: PS3573 .A425 Z54 1993
• Joannou, Maroula. Contemporary Women’s Writing: From The Golden Notebook  to The Color Purple. 2000.  Call Number: PR808 .W65 J62      2000

LINCCWeb online catalog – Search Terms

• Color Purple (Title Keywords)
• Walker, Alice (Subject Keywords)
• Walker, Alice –  criticism and interpretation (Subject Keywords)
• African American women in literature (Subject Keywords)

Reference Materials

• Contemporary Literary Criticism – Call Number: REF PN77 .C59

                  o   Vol. 27, pg. 449-51, 454

                  o   Vol. 46, pg. 424-25, 427-32

                  o   Vol. 58, pg. 405-15

                  o   Vol. 103, pg. 366-68, 372, 374-76, 380, 383, 385, 387-89, 391-93, 395-98,  405, 411, 417, 419, 422, 428

                  o   Vol 167, pg. 232-341

• Critical Survey of Long Fiction – Call Number: REF PN3321 .C75 2000

                  o   Vol. 7, pg. 3341-42

                  o   Vol. 8, pg. 4060-61

• Literature and Its Times – Call Number: REF PN50 .L574 1997

                  o   Vol. 3, pg. 80-87

• Masterplots (Revised Second Edition) – Call Number: REF PN44 .M33 1996

                  o   Vol. 2, pg. 1203-06

• Masterplots II: African American Literature  (Revised Edition) – Call Number: REF PS153 .N5 M2645 2009

                  o   Vol. 1, pg. 373-78

• Novels for Students – Call Number: REF PN44 .N937

                  o   Vol. 5, pg. 48-71

Research Databases

To access Valencia’s research databases, open your Atlas account, select ‘Search the Library’, then select ‘Databases A-Z’.

• Academic Search Complete
•  Literature Resources from Gale
• OmniFile Full Text Mega

This Research Guide is designed to help users find information on a particular topic within the Valencia College East Campus Library.  This is by no means a comprehensive list of resources and other resources may be available on this topic.  Please check LINCCWeb, Valencia East’s online catalog, to verify the availability of circulating books within the library.  Feel free to ask a librarian for help if you need further assistance.

Copyright 2005

Valencia College East Campus Library

Last Revised on August 31, 2009