Combats du personnage féminin dans « the color purple (1982) » d'Alice Walker et « une si longue lettre » (1979) de Mariama Bâ.

Abstract

This dissertation is a comparative study of the African-American and African novels The Color Purple (1982) by Alice Walker and Une si longue lettre (1979) by Mariama Bâ. It examines the struggle of women in the two books. This comparative analysis is based on a feminist approach involving several theories. We have used some of them: radical feminism and Marxist feminism. These theories are mainly inspired by two theorists: Alice Walker, with the concept “Womanism” developed in her collection of essays In Search of Our Mothers Garden: Womanist Prose (1983), and Simone De Beauvoir in her essay Le deuxième sexe (1949). While shedding light on black women‟s issues in African-American and African communities, our dissertation first examines the relevant factors in the exercise of male superiority over black women in the southern United States and Senegal. It then shows how Alice Walker and Mariama Bâ contributed to the freedom of black women through solidarity, education and writing. Finally, this demonstration leads us to positive outcomes such as self-affirmation, lifestyle change and financial empowerment, which is, in fact, the focus of the last part. After analysing the books by these women writers, our work concludes with the similarities and differences between The Color Purple and Une si longue lettre. These two works are Bâ and Walker‟s heartfelt cry for women to be given a voice. They also confirm that education and writing are undeniable means of guaranteeing women’s social advancement and emancipation.