Dans la grande tradition du roman sudiste, La Couleur pourpre, dénonçant l'oppression raciale et sexuelle dont furent victimes les femmes noires, a fait date. Celie et Nettie sont deux soeurs séparées à l'adolescence mais liées par un amour indéfectible que ne terniront ni les brimades ni le mépris, ni les guerres ni l'absence. Celie, mariée enfant à un homme violent, ne reçoit pas les lettres que lui adresse Nettie, devenue missionnaire en Afrique, car son époux les subtilise. Ignorant l'adresse de sa soeur, elle-même envoie ses lettres au Bon Dieu. Une correspondance sans espoir de réponse mais qui sauvera les deux femmes du désespoir.
Réfugiées venues d'Amérique latine, filles ou épouses de missionnaires, exploratrices, aventurières, rescapées d'une tribu africaine décimée..., les héroïnes de Dans le temple de mon esprit, déracinées, ballottées entre leur héritage africain et leur vie aux États-Unis, cherchent à réapprendre le goût de la vie et de l'amour. Et c'est peut-être en replongeant cinq cent mille ans en arrière, dans un passé mythique où les anges étaient noirs et les femmes détentrices des vérités ultimes, qu'elles pourront trouver la solution à leurs déchirements.
À travers tous ses personnages, parmi lesquels Celie et Shug, déjà croisées dans La Couleur pourpre, Alice Walker dresse une formidable épopée de la femme noire, de l'Afrique à l'Amérique, dans un foisonnement de fables où l'érotisme se confond avec le merveilleux.
Dans le pays fictif d'Olinka, depuis la nuit des temps, les femmes sont esclaves de ce rite tabou, l'excision, qui mutile les filles pour en faire de vraies femmes, de vraies Africaines, d'authentiques Olinkas... Tashi, aperçue dans La Couleur pourpre, n'imaginait pas ne pas se plier à cette coutume. Pourtant, elle savait que sa soeur n'y avait pas survécu et elle avait connu le plaisir dans les bras d'Adam. Mais la femme qui se relève après la cérémonie d'initiation est-elle encore une femme ? Tashi ne le sait plus. Transplantée aux États-Unis, elle n'a plus qu'une obsession : retourner au pays et retrouver M'Lissa, la tsunga, la gardienne de la tradition, qui a fait d'elle une morte vivante...
En 1992, l'autrice engagée de La Couleur pourpre, couronné du prix Pulitzer en 1983, était la première à aborder dans un roman la question de l'excision. Avec Le Secret de la joie, elle a contribué à faire connaître cette pratique dangereuse, aux conséquences désastreuses sur la vie des filles.
The classic, Pulitzer Prize-winning novel that made Alice Walker a household name. Set in the deep American South between the wars, The Color Purple is the classic tale of Celie, a young black girl born into poverty and segregation. Raped repeatedly by the man she calls 'father', she has two children taken away from her, is separated from her beloved sister Nettie and is trapped into an ugly marriage. But then she meets the glamorous Shug Avery, singer and magic-maker - a woman who has taken charge of her own destiny. Gradually Celie discovers the power and joy of her own spirit, freeing her from her past and reuniting her with those she loves.
« Quoi qu il soit arrivé à l humanité, quoi qu il arrive à l humanité en cet instant, c est à chacun d entre nous que cela arrive. »Alice WalkerEn 2006, à l initiative de l organisation féministe Women for Women International, Alice Walker se rend au Rwanda et au Congo pour rencontrer les rescapées du génocide rwandais. En 2009, le groupe pacifiste Code Pink l invite à entreprendre un nouveau voyage en Palestine et en Israël. Dans ces régions du monde marquées par les conflits et les bouleversements politiques, elle recueille les récits de femmes et d hommes meurtris dans leur chair par la violence des guerres.De retour aux Etats-Unis, elle écrit ce court essai, à la fois incisif et d une grande poésie, puisant dans son expérience d Afro-américaine pour éclairer ces destins brisés par l oppression. Se confrontant à l indicible, elle cherche à « conjurer le silence » qui semble inexorablement recouvrir les atrocités dont est capable le genre humain.
This is a visual memoir of Alice Walker's remarkable life as a novelist, essayist, poet and activist in candid photographs, manuscript drafts - including handwritten drafts of The Color Purple - letters and other selections from the personal archive she started keeping when she was 14. These records are framed by an intimate first-person narrative that will make readers feel as though they are having a cup of tea with the Pulitzer Prize-winning author as she shares - in her own unguarded, opinionated and singular voice - the story behind each letter, document and snapshot. Escorting readers on a fascinating journey through five decades of American social history, this literary scrapbook captures important public and private moments from an illustrious and inimitable life.
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. Alice Walker's iconic modern classic is now a Penguin Book. A powerful cultural touchstone of modern American literature, The Color Purple depicts the lives of African American women in early twentieth-century rural Georgia. Separated as girls, sisters Celie and Nettie sustain their loyalty to and hope in each other across time, distance and silence. Through a series of letters spanning twenty years, first from Celie to God, then the sisters to each other despite the unknown, the novel draws readers into its rich and memorable portrayals of Celie, Nettie, Shug Avery and Sofia and their experience. The Color Purple broke the silence around domestic and sexual abuse, narrating the lives of women through their pain and struggle, companionship and growth, resilience and bravery. Deeply compassionate and beautifully imagined, Alice Walker's epic carries readers on a spirit-affirming journey towards redemption and love.
THE ICONIC CLASSIC, WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE ONE OF THE BBC ''100 NOVELS THAT SHAPED OUR WORLD'' ''A lush celebration of all that it means to be a black female. I love that The Color Purple doesn''t try to soften its blows but is also courageous enough to hold on to a wonderfully affirming faith in possibility, in forgiveness and kindness and hope'' Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie '' The Color Purple is my go-to comfort novel. Every single time I read this book, I walk away as a slightly better person than I was when I picked it up'' Tayari Jones ''I think that The Color Purple was the first book that made me think that I could try to be a writer - or that made me aware that a young black woman from the South could write about the South'' Jesmyn Ward ''I got the book and read it, in one day, when it came out. And then I went back, the next day, and bought every copy they had'' Oprah Winfrey A powerful cultural touchstone of modern American literature, The Color Purple depicts the lives of African American women in early twentieth-century rural Georgia. Separated as girls, sisters Celie and Nettie sustain their loyalty to and hope in each other across time, distance and silence through a series of letters spanning twenty years, first from Celie to God, then the sisters to each other despite the unknown. Abused repeatedly by the man she calls ''father'', Celie has two children taken away from her and is trapped into an ugly marriage. But then she meets the glamorous Shug Avery, singer and magic-maker - a woman who has taken charge of her own destiny. And gradually Celie discovers the power and joy of her own spirit, freeing her from her past and reuniting her with those she loves. Beloved by generations of readers, The Color Purple broke the silence around domestic and sexual abuse, narrating the lives of women through their pain and struggle, companionship and growth, resilience and bravery. Deeply compassionate and beautifully imagined, Alice Walker''s epic carries readers on a spirit-affirming journey towards redemption and love. ''One of the most haunting books you could ever wish to read. It is stunning - moving, exciting and wonderful'' Lenny Henry '' The Color Purple needs no category other than the fact that it is superb'' Rita Mae Brown ''The great irony about The Color Purple is that it transcends colour. One of the greatest books of all time'' Benjamin Zephaniah ''A unique blend of serenity and immediacy that makes your senses ache'' Helen Dunmore ''A genuinely mind-expanding book'' Patrick Ness ''Indelibly affecting... Alice Walker is a lavishly gifted writer'' New York Times ''One of the great books of our time'' Essence Magazine ''A work to stand beside literature of any time and place'' San Francisco Chronicle
The collected poems of the Pulitzer Prize winning author of THE COLOR PURPLE. 'I am the woman offering two flowers whose roots are twin. Justice and Hope Hope and Justice Let us begin' Alice Walker has been writing poetry since the summer of 1965, when she travelled to East Africa and began the collection ONCE while sitting beneath a tree facing Mount Kenya. Encompassing the collections ONCE, REVOLUTIONARY PETUNIAS & OTHER POEMS, GOOD NIGHT WILLIE LEE I'LL SEE YOU IN THE MORNING, and HORSES MAKE A LANDSCAPE LOOK MORE BEAUTIFUL as well as other poems, this is a wonderful, surprising, entertaining collection that offers a historical perspective on the evolution of both the poetry itself and the political and spiritual inspiration behind it.
''A lean book that goes down like clear water. Remarkable'' New Yorker ''One of the most gifted writers in her country'' Isabel Allende Set in the American South in the 1960s it follows Meridian Hill, a courageous young woman who dedicates herself heart and soul to her civil rights work, touching the lives of those around her even as her own health begins to deteriorate. Hers is a lonely battle, but it is one she will not abandon, whatever the costs. This is classic Alice Walker, beautifully written, intense and passionate.
The Pulitzer Prizeyes'>#8211;winning author of The Color Purple, Possessing the Secret of Joy, and The Temple of My Familiar now gives us a beautiful new novel that is at once a deeply moving personal story and a powerful spiritual journey. In Now Is the Time to Open Your Heart, Alice Walker has created a work that ranks among her ?nest achievements: the story of a womanyes'>#8217;s spiritual adventure that becomes a passage through time, a quest for self, and a collision with love. Kate has always been a wanderer. A wellpublished author, married many times, she has lived a life rich with explorations of the natural world and the human soul. Now, at fiftyseven, she leaves her lover, Yolo, to embark on a new excursion, one that begins on the Colorado River, proceeds through the past, and flows, inexorably, into the future. As Yolo begins his own parallel voyage, Kate encounters celibates and lovers, shamans and snakes, memories of family disaster and marital discord, and emerges at a place where nothing remains but love. Told with the accessible style and deep feeling that are its authoryes'>#8217;s hallmarks, Now Is the Time to Open Your Heart is Alice Walkeryes'>#8217;s most surprising achievement.From the Hardcover edition.
" Les cheveux de poupée sont une référence directe à mes souvenirs d'enfance.
Je me souviens de ces terribles peurs que j'avais lorsque j'étais seule à la maison et que j'attendais pendant de longues heures, le retour de ma mère. A cette époque, je m'inventais des rituels pour calmer mes angoisses. Par exemple, ces rituels consistaient à défaire des coutures de tissus et à utiliser les fils que je récupérais pour attacher certaines parties de mon corps ou d'autres objets. Peu après mes cheveux ont remplacé les fils.
Se souvenir relève d'un processus imaginatif. Bergson disait que parler du passé, c'est rêver. Le temps est mon " matériau " principal, la toile dans laquelle je réinvente mes souvenirs. Je joue avec la dislocation du temps comme les enfants construisent des mondes parallèles. Enfant nous ne pensons pas de façon logique et notre conception du temps n'apparaît certainement pas comme étant une trajectoire linéaire et objective.
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