Resistance of Gendered Subaltern: A Study of Maya Angelou’s I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

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Naseem Choudhary

Abstract

Black woman in America experiences triple suppression of race, sex and class. The paper tries to throw light on the oppression of women as subaltern in the hands of both Black men and White community. Racial prejudices against Black women and the response to the injustices will be discussed based on the nature of resistance from helpless anger to outright protest. A thorough study of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings in the paper voices the struggled subjugation from a racialist and chauvinist society; as how a Black gendered subaltern attempted to create not only racial equality but also gender equality through her fearless courage and forbearance. The study also focuses on Angelou’s phenomena of resistance in the background of post colonialism through exploring the current means by which people formulate their racial and gender identity. Angelou’s autobiography is a vocalization of the struggle for national, racial, and self-identity; she addresses the incompatible difference between Black and White community, feminism and masculinity, inferiority and superiority complex in the governing male dominated society.

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How to Cite
Naseem Choudhary. “Resistance of Gendered Subaltern: A Study of Maya Angelou’s I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings”. The Creative Launcher, vol. 2, no. 4, Oct. 2017, pp. 180-5, https://www.thecreativelauncher.com/index.php/tcl/article/view/610.
Section
Research Articles

References

Angelou, Maya. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. New York: Random House, 1969. Print.

Beauvoir, Simone de. The Second Sex. London: Jonathan Cape, 2009. Print.

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Shakespeare, William. Romeo and Juliet. New Delhi: Rupa Publishers, 2001. Print

Spivak, G.C., “Can the Subaltern Speak?”, Colonial Discourses and Postcolonial Theory: A Reader. Eds. Patric Williams and Laura Chrisman. New York: Colombia University Press, 1994. Print.