Maya Angelou Summary of Five

Maya Angelou

Summary of Five Articles on Maya Angelou

Danahay (1991) takes on one of the most important topics in Angelou's writings -- but a topic that is probably even more central to the teaching of Angelou's writings -- the concept of resistance and accommodation. He makes the point -- as does she, although she does so in more understated ways -- that these two dynamics are not in fact opposed to each other. Rather, resistance and accommodation present themselves to each person in a complicated set of choices, and often it is not clear to an individual (such as the choices that Angelou's characters face) whether a given action is personally empowering or not, and whether that empowerment is based on resistance or some other dynamic.

McMurry (1976) takes on a similar subject, looking at the way in which role-playing can be a form of resistance. Rather than being a retreat from reality or a way of denying the real challenges and traumas faced by African-Americans. Role-playing, which can take the form of playing up to the stereotypes that white and Latino/a Americans (and members of other American racial groups), can actually be a form of resistance. So long as the roles that one plays are done with insight and intention, Angelou writes, and McMurry examines, they can be freeing. Without such insight, however they can be significantly disempowering and perpetuate inter-generational trauma.

Lirola (2002) asks her readers to consider one of the ways in which Angelou has staked a claim to speaking for the kinds of people and communities. Angelou, she notes, has incorporated the speech patterns of black women in a way that few other authors have done. Certainly using vernacular speech forms (from vocabulary to syntax) is nothing new, and has been used by a range of American writers, especially those attempting to convey to the rest of the world the value of the ideas expressed by a population whose ideas are often dismissed because of the style in which they are conveyed.

Grady (2008) also focuses on the ways in which Angelou gives expression to a population that is too often silenced by a range of social and cultural -- and psychological and emotional factors -- by writing her own autobiography in various forms. By using the richness of her own expressive capabilities -- which are far in excess of what most of us have -- she makes a most eloquent case that there is in every human life a wonderful story. African-American women are so often denied access to their own stories; Angelou frees both herself, other black women, and the communities in which these women live to tell their stories.