The Color Purple: Genre 1 key example

Postmodernist genres are often reflexively critical, challenging commonly-held assumptions as to what literature should look like or how it should be written. The Color Purple achieves this postmodernist effect through both content and form. It is an epistolary novel, but Walker writes all of the letters contained therein from the perspective of someone who cannot write "properly"—that is, according to white-centric writing standards that prefer Standard American English (SAE) over the African American English (AAE) dialect. The Color Purple challenges the idea that those who write "great literature" must be able to write "well." In fact, Walker goes one step further, challenging the very white supremacist ideals that would label certain aspects of AAE formally "illegitimate" or "incorrect."

Celie cannot write in SAE, but this should not and must not preclude her perspective from consideration. By centering Celie's voice as a narrator and choosing to highlight AAE linguistically, Walker undermines the white, elitist standards used to determine which works will be allowed into the Western "literary canon." Given the fact that The Color Purple is undoubtedly now a part of that canon, Walker can proudly count this postmodernist subversion effective.