Portrayal of Female Identity Crisis and Social Representation of Women in Maya Angelou’s Work

Abstract

Feminist literature is a peculiar product of twentieth century. Maya Angelou is a black African American female writer who contributed to the development of feminist literature with the central claims of female identity and societal representation of women. This study aims to highlight female identity crisis and social representation of women in autobiographies and poems of Maya Angelou. The study uses descriptive-qualitative method for the analysis of data. Textual analysis of Angelou’s poems and autobiographies represents lives of women lived in American society under masculine dominancy of previous century.  The results of the study detect a strong reaction to the issue of female identity crisis and recessive social role of women in the poems and autobiographies of Maya Angelou.