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Full Description
A revised and updated edition of a comprehensive biographical and critical reading of the works of American poet and memoirist Maya Angelou (1928-2014). Linda Wagner-Martin covers all six of Angelou's autobiographies, as well as her essay and poetry collections, whilst also exploring Angelou's life as an African American in the United States, her career as stage and film performer, her thoughtful participation in the Civil Rights actions of the 1960s, and her travels abroad in Egypt, Africa, and Europe.
In her discussion of Angelou's methods of writing her stunning autobiography, which began with the 1970 publication of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Wagner-Martin writes about the influences of the Harlem Writers Group (led by James Baldwin, Paule Marshall, and John O. Killens) as well as Angelou's significant friendships with Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Jr., and other leaders from both international and African American United States cultures. Crucial concepts throughout include the role of oral traditions, of song and dance, of the spiritualism of art based on religious belief, of Angelou's voiced rhythms and her polished use of dialogue to convey more abstract "meaning." Wagner-Martin shows that, viewing herself as a global citizen, Angelou never lost her spirit of adventure and discovery as well as her ability to overcome.
Named an Outstanding Academic Title of the Year by Choice in 2015, this new edition includes two new chapters on Angelou's connections to Africa and on her final years.
Contents
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgements
Preface
1. Marguerite Annie Johnson, April 4, 1928
2. Ambivalence Is Not So Easy
3. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
4. Gather Together in My Name
5. Music, Poetry, and Being Alive
6. Singin' and Swingin' and Gettin' Merry Like Christmas
7. The Heart of a Woman
8. Africa
9. A Song Flung Up to Heaven
10. Poems and the Public Spotlight
11. From Autobiography to the Essay
12. Maya Angelou as Spirit Leader
13. "Given to Grace Notes": Words as Music in Maya Angelou's Writing
14. The Last Years
Bibliography
Index
