From Pen to Print: Autobiographical Compositions of Maya Angelou

‘All of my work is meant to say, “You may encounter many defeats but you must not be defeated”. In fact, the encountering may be the very experience which creates the vitality and the power to endure.’ African-American autobiography is a personal presentation of experience. Although autobiography can sometimes be a bit blurred, it is portrayed from the memory of the writer and generally represents authentic experiences of that person in a society. Angelou's work is then, a presentation of the life of a black woman who has lived in the south and in the urban north, who has lived in Africa and has travelled Europe. She has experienced poverty and despair and has been granted high honours. Her work is the expression of those experiences and sensations through the eyes of a black woman. Her journey and struggle as a black woman is an artistic inscription of emotions on every leaf of her novels. With each successive novel, she poured her heart out confidently. Further description is about a rejected and abandoned child who has an encounter with the feeling of inferiority at the very beginning of her life, and at every stage of life, the demons around her tried to break her, pull her down, but she stood untouched and victorious. The contention of the paper is how all of the autobiographical works of Maya Angelou have been produced as an adult looking through the eyes of the child and young woman who was evolving. The work is a glimpse into the experiences of a black, female individual who has had to find an identity through the experiences lived.