Documente Academic
Documente Profesional
Documente Cultură
Color Purple"
Author(s): Kevin Everod Quashie
Source: Meridians, Vol. 2, No. 1 (2001), pp. 187-217
Published by: Indiana University Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40338815 .
Accessed: 29/04/2011 19:58
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at .
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless
you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you
may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use.
Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at .
http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=iupress. .
Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed
page of such transmission.
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of
content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms
of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.
Indiana University Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Meridians.
http://www.jstor.org
The OtherDancerAs Self
SelfhoodinToniMorrison'sSula
Girlfriend
and AliceWalker'sTheColorPurple
KEVIN EVEROD QUASHIE
[Meridians:
feminism, 2001, vol. 2, no. 1, pp. 187-217]
race,transnationalism
©2001 byWesleyanUniversityPress. All rightsreserved.
187
otherness(andexploitation ofa binarymodel),MorrisonandWalkerrep-
resentselfhoodas thedynamicrelationship betweenonewomanand her
other,hergirlfriend. This relationshipis dynamicparticularly because
the boundariesof self,metaphorically but also literally, are disrupted,
severed,transcended; theselfand itsgirlfriend becomecontiguousand
sometimesindistinct subjects.This selfhood is volatileandoccursviatwo
levelsof identification betweenselfand other:identification urith,and
identification as. The continuousmovementbetween"with"(wherea
subjectidentifiescomparatively) and "as" wherethe subjectidentifies
also
metonymically represents disidentification, because the subjectis
alwaysbeingdislodged/always dislodgingherselffroma settledidentity
withher other.In these two texts,identity is an "ongoingunsettling
process,"as TrinhT. Minh-ha(1989,40)has termedit,andchallengesthe
materialandspiritualboundariesofself.Identity hereis basedon thepar-
ticularpoliticalvaluesthatmakesan otherone's girlfriend- thesenseof
sisterhood(as bell hooks pronounces)as "politicalsolidarity between
women."2Yetthissolidarity (whichis nota stateor achievement, buta
process; the term is less a noun and more a verb) is contradictory, or at
leastseemsso. On one hand,itextendsbeyonditsown specificity, such
thatthe potencyof negotiatingothernessbetweentwo Black women
servesas a modeland conduitforhowa Blackfemalesubjectcan negoti-
ateheridentity in relationtoothersubjectswhoarenotBlackwomenbut
whoholda similarpoliticalcommitment as thesubject.Andstill,thesol-
idarityis also explicitlycommitted to centering thelivesand experiences
ofBlackwomen,a kindof"selfishness" necessitatedbythesocialimper-
ativeforBlackwomento be selfless.
This investigation of selfhoodis immersedin thelanguageand con-
of
cepts psychoanalysis.3 However,I am determined to exploreselfhood
in a contextthatwill not likelybe compatiblewith psychoanalysis,
especiallyinitsclassicconfigurations. Forone,I am interested inidentity
as a politic,as a personaland nationalpoliticalprocess,thatengages
history, oppressionand revolution as muchas anyotherparadigm.As
ErichFrommarguesin "Politicsand Psychoanalysis," muchof classic
psychoanalysis failsto account for
adequately identity politics,resulting
in a discourseofidentity thatsexes subjectsand evaluatestheirfamilial
relevance,but thathardlyaccountsforgender,race, ethnicity, or the
impactthesestructures haveon an individual'sidentity formation. And
I
though partlyagree with TerryEagleton's defense of Freud in Literary
Theory: AnIntroduction, suggestingthatFreud'swork"makesit possible
Sisters,Cousins:
Girlfriends,
MetaphorsofBlackFemaleRelationship
Iftheprocessofselfhoodmanifests as an oscillationbetweenidentifica-
tion "with"and identification "as" (and the requisitedisidentification
impliedin sucha volatileprocess),thenthenarrative construct
through
whichthisprocessoccursis thatofthegirlfriend, theotherBlackwoman
who is a subject'ssister,hergirl.PoetAndreaR. Canaan definesa girl-
friendas thefollowing:
Youknow,thekindofwomanfriendyou
can be a girlwith
YouknowwhatI meana womanyougiggle
withone minuteand can be dead serious
thenext...
The kindoffriendthatyouusually
tellall to and whenyouforgetto tell
hersome secretthatyouhavebeenholding
and casuallymentionitto her,youare
surprisedthatyouhadn'ttoldher.
Youknow,thekindoffriendthatyoucan
go outwithand it's notalwaysdutch....
Rebecca'sactofsightandlovesendshermotherintoa potentmoment
one whereshe meetsherself:
and celebration,
ofself-reverie
CelienotesthatShug'sbehaviorextendsoutsideofthethingswomen
do and say,an extensionthatis also at thegenesisofShug'sbeingable to
be Celie's other:notjust teethand babies,butalso a deep, committed
look at and interest
in Celie. This interestis followedbya daring(man-
like)proclamation, "girl,youlooklikea good time,"a proclamation that
rubslifebackintoSofia'salmost-deadbody,an actofsisterly
Celieliterally
re(-)pair.
WORKS CITED
Abel, Elizabeth. 1981. "(E)Merging Identities:The Dynamics of Female Friendship
in ContemporaryFiction byWomen." Signs6: 413-35.
Anzaldua, Gloria. 1987. Borderlands,La Frontera.
TheNewMestiza.San Francisco:
AuntLute Books.
Babb, Valerie. 1993. "Women and Words: Articulatingthe Self in TheirEyesWere
Watching Godand TheColorPurple."In AliceWalkerand ZoraNealeHurston:The
CommonBond,edited byLillie P. Howard, 83-93. Westport,CT and London:
Greenwood Press.
Bambara, Toni Cade. [1980] 1981. TheSaltEaters.New York:Vintage.
Beam, Joseph.1986. "Brotherto Brother:Words fromthe Heart." In TheLife:A
BlackGayAnthology, edited byJosephBeam, 230-42. Boston: AlysonBooks.
Belton, Don. 1995. "Where We Live: A ConversationwithEssex Hemphill and
Issac Julien."In SpeakMy Name:BlackMenon Masculinity and theAmericanDream,
edited byDon Belton. Boston: Beacon.
Bergenholtz,Rita A. 1996. "Tom Morrison's Sula: A Satireon BinaryThinking."
AfricanAmerican Review30: 89-98.
Bhabha, Homi K. 1986. "Signs Taken forWonder." In Race,Writing and Difference,
edited byHenryLouis Gates, Jr.Chicago: Universityof Chicago Press.
. 1995. "CulturalDiversityand CulturalDifferences."In ThePost-Colonial
StudiesReader,edited byBill Ashcroft,GarethGriffiths,and Helen Tiffin,
206-9. London and New York:Routledge.
Butler-Evans,Elliott.1989. Race,Genderand Desire:Narrative in theFictionof
Strategies
ToniCadeBambara,ToniMorrison andAliceWalker.Philadelphia: Temple UP.
Canaan, Andrea R. 1990. "Girlfriends."In MakingFace,MakingSoul.HadendoCaras:
Creative
and CriticalPerspectives
byFeministsofColor,edited byGloria Anzaldua.
San Francisco: AuntLute Books.
Cixous, Helene. 1986. TheNewlyBornWomany translatedbyBetsyWing.