i'm so tired

does this count as giving away one's scholarship?

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Bartlow Walker chapter outline
I. Sexy intro: “She must be New Age” -- Walker’s New Age spirituality as an alienating dealbreaker. Surprise: It’s a logical extension of her earlier work! She even says so!

II. Introduction and Thesis statement
A. Sketch of similarities with earlier work
C. Genealogy of earlier work
B. Thesis: Walker’s vision of spiritual transcendence is a logical evolution, but it evades the
lived reality of oppression in favor of a spiritual experience. It also alters her leadership in
affirmations of black women’s embodiment.

III. Buddhism background
A. Walker as advocate for people of color in Buddhism
B. Relationship with Pema Chodron and Buddhist practice
C. Literary usage of Buddhist structure
D. Evidence of advocacy from We Are the Ones We Have Been Waiting For

IV. Now Is the Time to Open Your Heart: what does she do?
A. Kate is alienated from Buddhist practice and physical being (aging). Literary consistency:
character development through paradigm shift
B. The parable of the snake; the threat of harmful embodiment. Literary transition into parable
(rather than healing narrative)
C. Nausea on the rafting trip
1. Transition into language as neutral/negative tool
2. Difference from early work: spiritual peace is ideal
D. Mexico trip
1. Revisits earlier characters and essays
a. Uncle Remus (“The Dummy in the Window”): making peace and gaining
the benefit of ancestral past
b. Lalika/Dessie Woods (“Trying to See My Sister”): being able at last to sit
“face to face” with a sister and help her
(1) Saartje subplot: incorporates historical trauma
(2) And here’s the flaw: Lalika’s tears are obscured! Quickly followed
by spiritual lessons.
c. These are hauntings of Walker’s earlier work—the most affecting stories,
they illustrate the lack of direct engagement with the trauma
E. Anunu and preparation for the trip: Walker raises “shorthand”, but it’s not effective
F. Women share on the rafting trip; Walker retains feminist community
G. Transcending the sexual body: Kate as adventurer who leaves the body

V. The Color Purple: let’s go back to see what is similar & different
A. Candice Jenkins’ “writerly body”: Walker is subject to interpretation and she violated the “salvific wish.” Critics should consider the value of alternative gender roles in TCP.
B. Celie confesses to God but speaks out, finding power in isolation
C. Epistolary form helps us identify major themes & follow step by step
D. Talk with Sofia: Celie is open, building community and personal health
E. Family participation: Squeak goes to jail, Walker demonstrates interlocking oppressions
but also Celie’s role as narrator/participant, unlike when Kate assumes Lalika’s tears
F. Eleanor Jane’s arrogance shows the broad destructiveness, suggesting larger interests.
G. Also raises “love and suffer consequences”, a major moral vision
H. Celie has learned what she needs, the community is strengthened.
I. Celie and Nettie both write letters as a form of religious observance
J. Spiritual revelation is the true climax.
1. Shug’s alternative spirituality: transgressive, embodied, genderless and with race
2. Language & self-articulation are central to Celie’s process

VI. Traditions/context
A. African American spiritual narrative
1. Essay on Jackson: being a model, respecting her terms
2. Christian essay: outsider/wayward persona (contributes to sense of connection)
3. Moody: spiritual “excess” as a threat to dominant narratives
a. Jarena Lee: combines “literary authority, sensuality, and political resistance”
4. Shug affirms sexuality and outsider status; Moody says use this, not ignore or decry.
This is also evoked in Kate as an adventurer, but note we are not participating, but
being lectured to. To care about change, people need to feel connected.
B. 1970s feminist spiritual emphasis
1. Anzaldua & Moraga: matrix identity for Chicana women
2. Daly & Christ: white feminist liberation theology
3. Goddess character was embodied power with a number of positive attributes, revising
meanings of “feminine”
C. Emphasis for black women
1. Cultural context was different: black women leaders were historically religious
2. Feminist narratives were insufficient; Walker contemporaries
a. Walker fits as a troubling member of this company
b. Subjectivity of black woman artist
c. The timing meant that spirituality was overwhelmed.
D. Walker says in 2004 that TCP is about theology. Spirituality will transcend troubled
embodiment. The irresponsibility is a problem.

V. Conclusion
A. Walker writes of having a body subjected to both human experiences & racist/sexist oppression.
B. Early work grounded in growth/healing narrative
a. Celie’s growth through sensuality and community defies gender conventions
and fights against oppression; suggests that accepting the body is the solution
and this acceptance takes place through spirituality
b. Subjectivity of African American woman artist: a new proposition for black
women’s power and community building
C. Later work grounded in universals and spiritual moments
a. Kate’s bodily transcendence is a metaphor for spiritual quest; through illness
and rejecting language she finds peace.
b. Walker haunts the texts with earlier work
D. Late work problems—critics’ reactions—are a problem with body and work. She refuses
accountability in her work for the problems she claims to care about in her activism.
E. Detail problems with the late work: favors spirituality above all; evades systemic problems;
limited in experience that’s represented
F. Still can teach us about how spirituality establishes community as a result of loving
embodiment. People connect when they connect with themselves and make the commitment
to others too. Her earlier work makes the reader feel the connections, rather than being told
they are or should be taking place. This shift can shed light upon two gaps: in women’s lit &
feminism, on the mechanism by which “personal as political” has diluted movements but
strengthened women individually; and in Walker scholarship, on her new work’s relation to her
standing.