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    Maya Angelou:A Study of Her Life and Poetry.: by Imithiyas Ahamed I II BA English The American College Madurai Abstract

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    1. Maya Angelou was an influential African American writer and civil rights activist best known for her autobiography "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings". She overcame a difficult childhood that included being raped at age 8 to have a successful career as a poet, memoirist, actress, and educator. 2. Angelou's poetry focused on themes of individual experience with oppression and racism as well as the social and spiritual responses to such brutality. Though some critics found her poetry lacking, others saw it as part of an important oral tradition incorporating elements of African American music. 3. She received many honors over her career including three Grammys and a Pulitzer Prize nomination, and was the first poet

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    Maya Angelou:A Study of Her Life and Poetry.: by Imithiyas Ahamed I II BA English The American College Madurai Abstract

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    danielrubaraj
    219 views3 pages
    1. Maya Angelou was an influential African American writer and civil rights activist best known for her autobiography "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings". She overcame a difficult childhood that included being raped at age 8 to have a successful career as a poet, memoirist, actress, and educator. 2. Angelou's poetry focused on themes of individual experience with oppression and racism as well as the social and spiritual responses to such brutality. Though some critics found her poetry lacking, others saw it as part of an important oral tradition incorporating elements of African American music. 3. She received many honors over her career including three Grammys and a Pulitzer Prize nomination, and was the first poet

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    Maya Angelou and her life

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    Maya Angelou

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    1. Maya Angelou was an influential African American writer and civil rights activist best known for her autobiography "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings". She overcame a difficult childhood that included being raped at age 8 to have a successful career as a poet, memoirist, actress, and educator. 2. Angelou's poetry focused on themes of individual experience with oppression and racism as well as the social and spiritual responses to such brutality. Though some critics found her poetry lacking, others saw it as part of an important oral tradition incorporating elements of African American music. 3. She received many honors over her career including three Grammys and a Pulitzer Prize nomination, and was the first poet

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    219 views3 pages

    Maya Angelou:A Study of Her Life and Poetry.: by Imithiyas Ahamed I II BA English The American College Madurai Abstract

    Uploaded by

    danielrubaraj
    1. Maya Angelou was an influential African American writer and civil rights activist best known for her autobiography "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings". She overcame a difficult childhood that included being raped at age 8 to have a successful career as a poet, memoirist, actress, and educator. 2. Angelou's poetry focused on themes of individual experience with oppression and racism as well as the social and spiritual responses to such brutality. Though some critics found her poetry lacking, others saw it as part of an important oral tradition incorporating elements of African American music. 3. She received many honors over her career including three Grammys and a Pulitzer Prize nomination, and was the first poet

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
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    Maya Angelou :A study of her Life and Poetry.



    By
    Imithiyas Ahamed I
    II BA English
    The American College Madurai

    Abstract:

    Maya Angelou is one of the most famous African American Writer. The present
    study analyses her life and her poetic contributions. Though she was a victim of family
    violence she has shaped herself to become a very good poet. She reminds us of the CUKKOO
    and the NI GHTI NGALE of the Greek Mythology.


    Maya Angelou is one of the most famous African-American women figures. As well as an
    inspiring figure as a poet, Maya is also well known to have been a great actress, educator,
    historian, author, playwright, director and producer (mayaangelou.com/bio/). At the time of Dr.
    Martin Luther King Jr., Maya was also inspired to became involved in the civil rights movement.
    Mary has many famous works, however she is very well-known for her autobiography: I know
    why the Caged Bird Sings. In that autobiography, Mary pours out the first seventeen years of her
    life, then writes about her years following in another autobiography.

    Maya Angelou's former name was Marguerite Ann Johnson. Maya got the nickname from her
    older brother bailey, who had a speech issue and couldn't pronounce Marguerite. He started
    calling her Maya because he read a book on Mayan indians, and the name stuck. Her parents
    divorced when she was only three years old, and she and her older brother Bailey were sent to
    live with their grandmother in Arkansas three years after Maya was born. Maya grew up in the
    south during a very racist period and the traditional african-american courtesy and respect
    (academy of achievement). She had a hard young life, and writes in her autobiography, "I know
    why the caged bird sings" how she remembers being more literate than her own mother (Angelou
    91). After living with her grandmother for a few years, whom her and her brother would call
    "momma", Maya and Bailey went to live with their mother in St. Louis, Missouri. At an age of
    only eight years old, Maya was raped by her mother's boyfriend. She didn't feel strong enough to
    confess to the adults in her life, and confided in her brother. After she learned that her uncle had
    killed the man who molested her, Maya felt responsible and was speechless for five years
    (Academy of achievement). Following this incident, Maya and her brother went back to live with
    their grandmother.

    At age 13, Maya moved back to her mother who lived in San Francisco. Maya's passion of music
    and drama as a teenager, earned her a scholarship to study at San Francisco's Labor School (.
    Maya goes through her education and dropped out at age 14 to become San Francisco's first
    African-American cable car conductor. She then goes back to school and during her senior year
    becomes pregnant, and has her baby a few weeks after graduating. Maya began her long life of
    careers in 1960, when she started performing and producing. She went through many jobs such
    2

    as editor of english language newsweekly, administrator of School and Music Drama, and
    worked as a waitress and cook to support herself and son right out of high school.

    Maya has many awards and achievements from poetry and acting. She was nominated for a
    Pulitzer prize for a collection of her poetry, and served on two presidential committees. President
    Bill Clinton asked that she present a poem at his inauguration in 1993, of which she wrote and
    recited; On the Pulse of Morning (infoplease). She was awarded the Presidential medal of arts in
    2000, and the Lincoln medal in 2008. Maya has also received three grammy awards for her
    inspiring performances in 1993, 1995, and 2000 (Biography.com). Maya is an inspirational idol
    to myself and many other women out in the world. She is an inspiring African-American leader
    to many; she unlike many others took a stand towards racism in the footsteps of Dr. Martin
    Luther King Jr.

    In her poetry, as in the five volumes of autobiography upon which her fame rests, Angelou's
    primary concern is with the distillation of experience into immediately accessible language. Her
    writing attempts to capture and preserve the determining forces, vicissitudes, and ambiance of
    her own life story and of the ongoing African-American story, which helped to shape her and
    which she reflects and illuminates

    Major Themes
    As in her volumes of autobiography, Angelou's poems suggest a context of experiences and
    character of incidents that give them meaning, rather than being autonomous creations
    independent of external, experiential reference. As with her volumes of autobiography, they, too,
    show twin concerns: the effects and consequences of individual desire, experience, oppression,
    and loss, and the social, psychological, and spiritual responses to racial and sexual brutality.
    Critical Reception
    Despite the popular success of her poetry, general critical consensus holds that Angelou would
    be hardly known as a poet were she not famous for the chronicles of her life. Her poems are
    considered by some critics to be thin in substance, lacking in poetic invention, and lackluster in
    language. Others, however, argue that the poems belong to a neglected oral tradition, incorporate
    elements of African-American slave songs and work songs, and must be seen as lyrics which
    require performance to reveal their depth and riches. As critic Lyman B. Hagen has observed,
    Angelou may rank as a poet of moderate ability, but her poetry is praised for its honesty and for
    a moving sense of dignity.
    Bibliography:

    Maya Angelou Global Renaissance woman. Dr. Angelou. 2010. Elemint. February 18,
    2010. http://mayaangelou.com/.

    Angelou, Maya. I know why the Caged Bird Sings. New York: Random House Inc.,
    1969.
    3


    Maya Angelou Biography. 2010. Biography.com. Feb 19, 2010.
    http://www.biography.com/articles/Maya-Angelou-9185388.

    Academy of American poets. "Maya Angelou". Poets.org 1997. March 15, 2010.
    <http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/87>

    Mitchell-Sims, Monice. "Tribute to Dr. Maya Angelou." DGA monthly July 2004.

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