Stacey M. Floyd-Thomas, ed. Deeper Shades of Purple: Womanism in Religion and Society.

Stacey M. Floyd-Thomas, ed. Deeper Shades of Purple: Womanism in Religion and Society. New York: New York UP, 2006. 331 pp. $75.00 cloth/$24.00 paper.

During my five-year stay in the US for a PhD a program in English, I did not have the pleasure of meeting Alice Walker, who is the initiator of Womanism. Ironically, my yearning to meet her was resolved when Walker visited Korea and Pusan National University, my alma mater, in June 2004. She was well received by her Korean audience. Listening to her lecture, I was greatly impressed by her thoughts, and since then, her epoch-making In Search of My Mother's Garden became my bible whenever I felt a need to get back to the roots of African American literature and African American women's predicament.

Deeper Shades of Purple: Womanism in Religion and Society is a collection of 22 essays and five brilliant poems on Walker's Womanism and womanist activities with a helpful introduction by Stacey M. Floyd-Thomas. The book is divided into five parts, the title of each as follows: Part I. Racial Subjectivity; Part II. Traditional Communalism; Part III. Redemptive Self-Love; Part IV. Critical Engagement; and Part V. Appropriation and Reciprocity. Parts I through IV indicate the four tenets of Womanism, while Part V includes responses from various critics.

Drawing on a wealth of womanist criticism that rekindles Walker's Womanism, this valuable collection of essays brings together a wide range of womanists and womanist perspectives from different sectors, providing readers with an excellent list of references on the theme of Womanism and womanist activities. Emphasizing the importance of the positive connection between womanist theory and its praxis, Floyd-Thomas's introduction launches a critique of the existing academic trend in which white males have dominated the study of American religion and theology. She also legitimizes the title of the book by arguing that Womanism has become a vanguard of liberation in religion and other disciplines. Therefore, it can be safely said that "Womanism is holistic" (169), and thus this book brings together responses from a diverse group of womanist scholars including liberationist scholars, scholars from Asia, and Latina and white feminists.

Chapter one in Part I begins with an essay by Katie G. Cannon, a renowned womanist educator and ethicist. In "Structured Academic Amnesia: As If This True Womanist Story Never Happened," Cannon argues the importance of the womanist movement in overcoming mainstream academic trends. Also of particular note are the essays by Debra Mubashshir Majeed, Nancy Lynne Westfield, Emilie M. Townes, and Kwok Pui-lan. Majeed's "Womanism Encounters Islam: A Muslim Scholar Considers the Efficacy of a Method Rooted in the Academy and the Church" is a timely essay, for women in Islamic regions experience oppression similar to that which black women underwent in the US. The Muslim Womanist Philosophy, "a perspective created to reclaim, enhance, and produce thoughtful explorations of African American Muslim life" (45), will give impact to the women's liberation movement in Third World countries. Majeed argues that Muslim Womanist Philosophy, which originated from the tenets of the Nation of Islam, differs from Islamic feminism, which is identified with western feminism. While Islamic feminism is concerned with educated and privileged Islamic women, Muslim Womanist Philosophy is related with the women who are oppressed. Therefore, Muslim Womanist Philosophy is like African American Womanism. Westfield's "Mama, Why ...?: A Womanist Epistemology of Hope" shows the reflections of black women by looking back on black ancestors. She discusses the positive direction of Womanism by applying Womanism to education and real life. Westfield's article, which connects Womanism with pedagogy, is fascinating as she reveals her actual teaching experience with Womanism. In "The Womanist Dancing Mind: Speaking to the Expansiveness of Womanist Discourse," Townes adopts Toni Morrison's notion of "the dancing mind." Extending the notion of Womanism, Townes, a womanist ethicist, asks for the necessity of womanist thought in solving the world's problems. For example, Townes criticizes the Bush administration for leading the US intervention in Iraq. Finally, Kwok Pui-lan's "Womanist Visions, Womanist Spirit: An Asian Feminist's Response" not only gives an Asian womanist perspective, but also emphasizes womanist scholars' ceaseless attention to black religious institutions and to the Third World for social change.

Suggesting diverse kinds of womanists such as a Muslim womanist and a Catholic womanist, this book also offers confessions by female scholars who have lived in the spirit of Womanism, showing the way to confront the shackles of the patriarchal system. Jean Toomer celebrates women in his beautiful book Cane (1923); the characters named Karintha, Carma, Fern, and others become Carri K, a harbinger of womanism as a harmonizer between black and white, and black man and black woman, and old black and new black. The Womanist movement aims at collective and communal efforts rather than individual steps, emphasizing the importance of healing and transformation in changing society. As Womanism emphasizes good teaching and dialogue, the womanist pedagogy is an epistemology of hope.

Most of this well written and rigorously argued volume includes the richness of contemporary scholarship on Womanism and the womanist movement. Though it is seemingly concerned about theology, the collection is also geared toward boosting the overall movement of women oppressed for their race, class, and national identities. The Womanist movement is the epistemology and methodology of the oppressed and a vehicle for emancipation of oppressed women. Absent, however, is any significant discussion of womanist postcolonial theory. Though Letty M. Russell argues some postcolonial issues in "Lavender Celebrates Purple: A White Feminist Response," a deeper discussion is needed to connect Womanism with postcolonialism. In addition, concerning the Asian perspective, because Karen Baker-Fletcher says in "A Womanist Journey" that she was surprised to notice that Korean women identify with Womanism more than feminism, I think that the inclusion of an article from Korean female scholar groups would have made this book more diverse.

As Floyd-Thomas states in the introduction, the volume "is dedicated to the memory of those valiant revolutionary Black women who fought the good fight, laid down to rest, and study war no more" (12). Walker's Womanism will gain more recognition as the world isolates Third World women who need more solidarity in fighting western globalization and colonization. A timely volume, this book ultimately contributes to the feminist movement. Although the womanist movement started as praxis for the late 20th-century black women's movement, it can be extended to all women who experience oppression regardless of color. This volume, which focuses on womanist approaches to religion and society, not only gives power to women but also offers a methodology for reconciliations between man and woman and between nations. That is to say, Womanism aims at improving better human relations through "intracommunal task[s]." In this sense, Womanism means humanism as well as it means "Womanism is revolutionary" (1). A valuable addition to the growing body of womanist writing, this book is a must for anyone who studies women's studies, sociology, religion, or other geopolitical subjects.

Reviewed by

Jaehwan Han

Kyungpook National University, Korea