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MAYA ANGELOU’S CONTRIBUTION TO AFRO-AMERICAN LITERATURE
Urazaliyeva Madina G’ofurovna
(mustaqil tadqiqotchi)
O’zbekiston Davlat Jahon Tillari Universiteti
Toshkent , O’zbekiston
Email: madinaurazaliyeva4@gmail.com
Tel: +998915655615
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.12643845
Abstract:
This article discusses prominent writer Maya Angelou’s life path through
hard times of Afro-American people. By writing beautiful poems and autobiographies she
could describe Afro-American people’s dreams , mostly her literal works were voice of unique
literal genre often came across in Afro-American female literature as “caged bird”.
Key words:
Afro-American literature, autobiography genre, poetry, caged bird, racism,
autobiographical fiction, motif, Civil rights’ movement.
Born Marguerite Johnson on April 4, 1928, and passing away on May 28, 2014, Maya
Angelou was a significant participant in the American Civil Rights Movement as well as a poet
and memoirist. Beginning with I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969), which was dubbed
Angelou's "magnum opus" and nominated for a National Book Award, Angelou is well-known
for her collection of six autobiographies. Her 1971 poetry collection Just Give Me a Cool Drink
of Water 'Fore I Diiie received a Pulitzer Prize nomination.
On April 4, 1928, Bailey Johnson, a doorman and navy dietician, and Vivian Baxter
Johnson, a nurse, real estate agent, and subsequently merchant marine, welcomed Marguerite
Johnson into the world. This is how Maya Angelou was born. She was given the moniker by
Bailey, Jr., Angelou's brother. "Maya."
1
The specifics of Angelou's life have been sporadically
described in her six autobiographies, as well as in a plethora of lectures, interviews, and
articles. When Angelou talks about her life, she does so elegantly yet casually, "with no time
chart in front of her," according to her biographer Mary Jane Lupton.."
2
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sing, Angelou's debut book, details her early years and her
encounter with racism, which is a major theme in her writing. She compared the stifling effect
of racial prejudice on her life to a caged bird. Because of Angelou's extensive use of fiction-
writing methods, including dialogue, characterisation, and the development of topic, setting,
narrative, and language, her writings are frequently classified as autobiographical fiction.
According to Angelou, they are autobiographies rather than works of fiction,
3
but as feminist
scholar Maria Lauret stated, Angelou has placed herself in this genre while critiquing
it.
4
Angelou also recognizes that there are fictional aspects to her books. Feminist scholar
Mary Jane Lupton states that Angelou tends to "diverge from the conventional notion of
1
The Guardian
, January 23, 1993. Retrieved June 21, 2022.
2
Mary Jane Lupton,
Maya Angelou: A critical companion
(Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1998,
),
2.
3
Mary Jane Lupton,
Maya Angelou: A critical companion
(Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1998,
),
P 29-30
4
Maria Lauret,
Liberating literature: Feminist fiction in America
), P
98
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autobiography as truth,"
5
which follows the patterns of a large portion of African American
autobiographies produced during the abolitionist era of US history, when the necessity for
self-defense led to the suppression of the truth..
6
Type of autobiographical fction (an
autobiographical type of fction) which renders the process of evolution, growth, and
formation of a character in his both biological and intellectual development usually from
childhood till early maturity according to the principle of chronotope whose spatial and
temporal components form the basis of its entire narrative structure and the basis for its
analysis
7
. Such statements show natural character of autobiographies and justifies the
author’s intentions about writing in this type of genre.
Much of African-American literature has faced the difficulty of having its authors prove
that their work is literature before it can achieve its political objectives. For this reason,
Angelou's editor, Robert Loomis, was able to push her to write Caged Bird by asking her to
write an autobiography that would be deemed "high art." One of Angelou's objectives in
writing Caged Bird at the close of the 1960s was to satisfy the then-accepted standard of
"organic unity," which had become a required and desirable aspect of literature. The themes
of Angelou's autobiographies are consistent and "stretch over time and place," despite
differences in style and delivery.,"
8
From the start of World War II to Martin Luther King Jr.'s
assassination in 1968, events took place from Arkansas to Africa and back to the US. Her
works contain episodic occurrences that are structured like a collection of short stories,
although they are not strictly chronologically arranged. Rather, they are positioned to
highlight the topics in her novels.
One way to characterize women's autobiographies from the 1970s is as "feminist first-
person narratives." Writers such as Maya Angelou have reinterpreted women's experiences in
a patriarchal culture via the use of autobiographies. The autobiographies that Maya Angelou
has written have characteristics with fictional first-person narratives; they are recognized as
"fictions of subjectivity" because they utilize the narrator as the protagonist and "rely upon
the illusion of presence in their mode of signification." As Lauret puts it, Angelou's stories
weave "the formation of female cultural identity" and present her as "a role model for Black
women." By reconstructing the Black woman's image in her autobiographies, Angelou
"signifies multiple layers of oppression and personal history" via her numerous incarnations
and identities."
9
Lauret sees Angelou's themes of the individual's strength and ability to
overcome throughout Angelou's autobiographies as well.
The most significant themes in Angelou's autobiographies are "kinship concerns," which
span all of her works and include everything from the event that defined her as a person—her
parents' abandonment—to her relationships with her son, spouses, and lovers..
10
scholar Dolly McPherson believes that Angelou's concept of family
throughout her books must be understood in the light of the way in which she and her older
5
Mary Jane Lupton,
Maya Angelou: A critical companion
(Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1998,
), P 34
6
Crispin Sartwell,
Act like you know: African-American autobiography and white identity
(Chicago: University of Chicago Press,
1998,
), 26.
7
Makhmudova, Nargiza Senior teacher (2019) "AUTOBIOGRAPHY AS A GENRE FEATURE OF COMING-OF- AGE
NOVELS BY CH. DICKENS," Philology Matters: Vol. 2019 : Iss. 2 , Article 23.
8
Mary Jane Lupton,
Maya Angelou: A critical companion
(Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1998,
), P 1
9
Maria Lauret,
Liberating literature: Feminist fiction in America
(New York: Routledge, 1994,
), P 97-98
10
Mary Jane Lupton,
Maya Angelou: A critical companion
(Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1998,
), P 11
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brother were displaced by their parents at the beginning of
Caged Bird
.
11
Specifically, her
experiences as a single mother, a daughter, and a granddaughter, are the "prevailing theme" of
all of Angelou's autobiographies: motherhood. Lupton thinks that this mother/child motif
from Harlem Renaissance poet Jessie Fauset's writings affected Angelou's plotting and
character development. As a "central image" for her autobiographical series, Angelou employs
the metaphor of a bird trying to break out from its prison, which is mentioned in a poem by
Paul Laurence Dunbar.
12
Similar to other components of the prison story, the caged bird
symbolizes Angelou's incarceration due to the racism that permeates Stamps, Arkansas, as
well as her ongoing struggles with various types of confinement, such as marriage, drug
abuse, racial discrimination, and the work system. In addition, this metaphor alludes to the
"supposed contradiction of the bird singing in the midst of its struggle."
Among the works published on and during the American Civil Rights movement,
Angelou's autobiographies were placed by French author Valérie Baisnée. The work by
Angelou was described as political by critic Pierre A. Walker. One of Angelou's main themes—
the injustice of racism and how to combat it—is highlighted by the coherence of her
autobiographies, he made clear. Walker said that all of Angelou's biographies, starting with
Caged Bird, are "a sequence of lessons about resisting racist oppression." Angelou, the main
character, moves from "helpless rage and indignation to forms of subtle resistance, and finally
to outright and active protest" in this section.
13
throughout all six of her autobiographies.
Angelou has been honored by universities, literary organizations, government agencies,
and special interest groups. Her honors include a National Book Award nomination for
I Know
Why the Caged Bird Sings,
a Pulitzer Prize nomination for her book of poetry, “
Just Give Me A
Cool Drink of Water 'Fore I Die”
14
, memorable appearance in the 1973 play Look Away that
earned her a Tony Award nomination; her spoken word CDs won three Grammys. The longest
record (two years) on The New York Times Paperback Nonfiction Bestseller List was
acknowledged by Angelou's publishing house, Bantam Books, in 1995. She received the
Lincoln Medal in 2008 and the National Medal of Arts and Humanities Award in 2000. She has
served on two presidential committees. Artist Ben Harper has paid tribute to Maya Angelou
by incorporating some of her poetry, "And Still I Rise," into his song "I'll Rise."
Artists, celebrities, and international leaders, including as President Barack Obama—
whose sister was named after Angelou—and former President Bill Clinton, offered homage to
Angelou and expressed their sympathies at the time of her passing. National Book Foundation
director Harold Augenbraum stated that Angelou's "legacy is one that all writers and readers
across the world can admire and aspire to."
15
She has been awarded over 30 honorary
11
Dolly A. McPherson,
Order out of chaos: The autobiographical works of Maya Angelou
(New York: Peter Lang
), P 14.
12
35 who made a difference: Maya Angelou
Smithsonian.com
, November 1, 2005. Retrieved June 21,
2022.
13
Pierre A. Walker, Racial protest, identity, words, and form in Maya Angelou's I Know Why the Caged Bird
Sings
College Literature
22(3) (October 1995): 91-108.
14
Homer E. Moyer,
The R.A.T. Real-world aptitude test: Preparing yourself for leaving home
(Sterling, VA: Capital
), 297.
15
Colleen Jenkins and Bill Trott,
Maya Angelou, author and poet, dead at 86
Reuters
, May 28, 2014. Retrieved June 21,
2022.
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degrees.
16
In 2011, President Barack Obama awarded her with the Medal of Freedom, the
country's highest civilian honor.
In conclusion, Maya Angelou was one of the greatest Afro-American writers of all time
and still being honoured by the readers of the literature throughout the world. Her enormous
contribution is highly appreciated by world’s literature community by increased demand to
read her poems and autobiographies.
References:
1.
Colleen Jenkins and Bill Trott, Maya Angelou, author and poet, dead at 86 Reuters, May
28, 2014. Retrieved June 21, 2022.
2.
Crispin Sartwell, Act like you know: African-American autobiography and white identity
(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998, ISBN 0226735273), 26.
3.
Dolly A. McPherson, Order out of chaos: The autobiographical works of Maya Angelou
(New York: Peter Lang Publishing, 1990, ISBN 0820411396), P 14.
4.
Homer E. Moyer, The R.A.T. Real-world aptitude test: Preparing yourself for leaving
home (Sterling, VA: Capital Books, 2003, ISBN 1931868425), 297.
5.
Kate Kellaway, Poet for the new America The Guardian, January 23, 1993. Retrieved June
21, 2022.
6.
Lucinda Moore, Growing Up Maya Angelou. Smithsonian.com, April 1, 2003. Retrieved
June 21, 2022
7.
Maria Lauret, Liberating literature: Feminist fiction in America (New York: Routledge,
1994, ISBN 0415065151), P 97-98
8.
Mary Jane Lupton, Maya Angelou: A critical companion (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press,
1998, ISBN 0313303258), P 1-30
9.
Makhmudova, Nargiza Senior teacher (2019) "AUTOBIOGRAPHY AS A GENRE FEATURE
OF COMING-OF-
10.
AGE NOVELS BY CH. DICKENS," Philology Matters: Vol. 2019 : Iss. 2 , Article 23.
11.
DOI: 10.36078/987654344 . https://uzjournals.edu.uz/philolm/vol2019/iss2/23
[15.06.2024]
12.
Pierre A. Walker, Racial protest, identity, words, and form in Maya Angelou's I Know
Why the Caged Bird Sings College Literature 22(3) (October 1995): 91-108.
13.
Richard Long, 35 who made a difference: Maya Angelou Smithsonian.com, November 1,
2005. Retrieved June 21, 2022.
16
Smithsonian.com
, April 1, 2003. Retrieved June 21, 2022
