Contains contemporary criticism on writers who have shaped Western tradition, as well as notes on the contributors, and a chronology of the author's life.
Content Note
The song of a caged bird: Maya Angelou's quest after self-acceptance / Sidonie Ann Smith -- Maya Angelou's I know why the caged bird sings and black autobiographical tradition / George E. Kent -- Displacement and autobiographical style in Maya Angelou's The heart of a woman / Carol E. Neubauer -- Reconstruction of the composite self: new images of black women in Maya Angelou's continuing autobiography / Sondra O'Neale -- Maya Angelou and the autobiographical statement / Selwyn R. Cudjoe -- Transcendence: the poetry of Maya Angelou / Priscilla R. Ramsey -- The daughter's seduction: sexual violence and literary history / Christine Froula -- Call and response: intertextuality in two autobiographical works by Richard Wright and Maya Angelou / Keneth Kinnamon -- A song of transcendence: Maya Angelou / Joanne M. Braxton -- Con artists and storytellers: Maya Angelou's problematic sense of audience / Françoise Lionnet -- Singing the black mother: Maya Angelou and autobiographical continuity / Mary Jane Lupton -- Maya Angelou: self and a song of freedom in the southern tradition / Carol E. Neubauer.