FROM WOUNDS TO WISDOM: RETHINKING POWER THROUGH VULNERABILITY THEORY IN ALICE WALKER’S THE COLOR PURPLE.

In The Color Purple by Alice Walker, the character of Shug Avery undermines traditional depictions of power through her personification of a type of strength grounded in emotional vulnerability, personal autonomy, and spiritual resistance. From the vantage point of vulnerability theory—most notably as voiced by thinkers such as Judith Butler and Brené Brown—this article re-examines Shug as a seductive, autonomous woman. Rather, she becomes a innovative figure of emotional intelligence and healing. Shug's difficulty, her vulnerability to pain, and her intimate connections with other women, particularly Celie, enable us to recognize power not as domination but as a potential for feeling deeply, healing, and renovation. This reading situates Shug Avery as a literary character who covers power through the knowledge accrued from wounds, making a strong argument for vulnerability as a feminist ethic in African American literature.