 |
|
Dialogues@RU is published annually
by the
Writing Program at
Rutgers, The State
University of New Jersey
Volume One
Spring 2002
Maya Angelou:
Finding a Voice through her Complex Vision of Self and Shakespeare -
Page 1
by Lisa Giberson
In I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Maya Angelou creates a complex model of self by enlisting her love of literature, especially the literature of William Shakespeare, to assist her in constructing a culturally unique model of self. Angelou creates this alternate identity that is rooted in literature to see herself as separate and unique from the racially biased society in which she lives. Angelou joins this isolated vision of self together with her identity that is linked to her ethnicity to form a complex vision of self that enables her to find a voice in a racially oppressive society. Once Angelou is able to view herself as an isolated individual, both removed from and connected to the collective identity of the black community, she is able to overcome the forces in her life that threaten to silence her. In finding her voice Angelou is able to put forth this complex model of self in her autobiography.
Angelou's story begins in the early 1930's when she is sent by her parents at age three, along with her four-year-old brother Bailey, to live with her paternal grandmother, Momma, in Stamps, Arkansas. In Stamps, the young Angelou, known as Marguerite Johnson, develops her love of literature and learning. The tale chronicles Angelou's experiences growing up in the racially segregated South and then follows her reunion with her beautiful light skinned mother, Vivian, in St. Louis. While living in St. Louis, the eight-year old Angelou is raped by Mr. Freeman, her mother's boyfriend. The rape, criminal trial and consequent murder of the rapist result in Angelou's silence for over a year. During this self-imposed silence she returns to Stamps and her relationship with a neighbor, who shares Angelou's love of literature, helps bring her out of her silence. Several years later Angelou returns to live with her mother, this time in California. While living in California, Angelou visits her father and encounters more violence when her father's girlfriend stabs Maya in a jealous rage. Angelou hides out with a band of runaway youths for a brief yet influential period. When she returns home to Vivian, Angelou becomes the first black female cable car conductor in San Francisco. Angelou ends her story at the age of sixteen with her graduation from high school immediately followed by the birth of her son.
As the young Marguerite Johnson, Angelou creates an identity both connected to and separate from the black community of Stamps, Arkansas. Angelou constructs a world in which, through her separate identity, she is able to view herself as unique and special. The theory of a separate or "isolated" identity is put forth by Georges Gusdorf in his essay, "Conditions and Limits of Autobiography" and examined in its relationship to women by Susan Stanford Friedman in her article, "Women's Autobiographical Selves: Theory and Practice". According to Friedman: "For Gusdorf, the consciousness of self upon which autobiography is premised is the sense of 'isolated being,' a belief in the self as a discrete, finite 'unit' of society" (94). Gusdorf's theory is that an "isolated" identity is what enables an autobiographer to view their life as unique and worth writing about. Friedman goes on to quote Gusdorf as stating that autobiography cannot happen "[where] the individual does not oppose himself to all others […]" (93). By removing oneself from the collective group, this leads to a self-conscious awareness that provides the individual with the landscape necessary for autobiography. Gusdorf's theory was written with the Western European male as its paradigm, therefore Friedman takes Gusdorf's idea and turns it around to encompass women:
A slight alteration of his statement will serve the purposes of reversal: Autobiography is possible when 'the individual does not feel [herself] to exist outside of others and still less against others, but very much [with] others in an interdependent existence that asserts its rhythms everywhere in the community…' (95).
Friedman sees Gusdorf's theory as being complicated by the concept of a woman autobiographer and since according to Friedman women, unlike men, are connected to the community they do not need to see themselves as an "isolated" individual in order to write. Angelou as a black woman is connected to and dependent upon her community, but as a victim of the racial inequality in Stamps she must also form an identity that is "isolated" in order to view herself in a positive light. Angelou's complex model of self incorporates both the "isolated" identity of Gusdorf along with the "interdependent" identity of Friedman.