Womanist Therapies in Alice Walker's The Color Purple: Black Art as Spiritual Revival.

Alice Walker's literature evinces the power of storytelling, painting, singing, dancing, and other art forms not only as a salvific balm but also as a way to make meaning of distressing experiences due to racism, gender violence, colonialism, and climate disaster, among other interlocking forms of oppression. Yet, despite the depths of everyday artistic genius embodied by many of Walker's characters, few scholars have observed how Walker elevates Womanist-oriented "art therapies" as rituals of spiritualized care for Black healing. Walker's characters' engagement in these non-traditional modes of therapy raises questions about the limitations—and sometimes harmful nature—of Eurocentric therapeutic approaches when it comes to caring for the psychological and spiritual needs of Black people across the diaspora. As such, this paper explores the love-based technologies of communal dialogue, letter writing, singing, and quilting in The Color Purple (1982) as a means to promote art therapy as the primary mode for restoring and reviving Black people's mind, body, and soul. Because there is a lack of attention to the realities of Black people in traditional mental health studies, I argue that, using Woman-ist and psychoanalytic frameworks to explore Black women's writings reveals how art therapies have already provided an outlet for Black peoples' spiritual, emotional, and psychological nurturance and healing that predates the use of modern Western psychology. Furthermore, Walker's art-based love ethic imbued in Womanist works like The Color Purple increases our attentiveness to our own blind spots, grief, and spiritual wellbeing so they can be faced, healed, and rejuvenated, respectively, using creative modalities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]