The Awakening And Development Of Self-consciousness In Female African American Writers’ Autobiographies In The Twentieth Century

African American autobiographies,which constitute an important part of AfricanAmerican narratives,have received growing academic attention in the past decades.Although some female African American writers also write autobiographies,their works have received less attention than their male counterparts.In fact,female African American writers such as Zora Neale Hurston,Maya Angelou,Gwendolyn Brooks,and Audre Lorde all managed to explore the issue of self-consciousness in their autobiographies.The examination of these autobiographies aims to explore the intricate relationship between self and race,between the individual and the collective.This thesis analyzes the autobiographical work by four female African American writers in the twentieth century,all of whom have once experienced either Harlem Renaissance,Civil Rights Movement,or black feminism.The autobiographies under examination are Zora Neale Hurston’s Dust Tracks on a Road(1942),Maya Angelou’s I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings(1969),Gwendolyn Brooks’ Report from Part One(1972),and Audre Lorde’s Zami: A New Spelling of My Name(1982).The study focuses on the awakening and development of authors’ self-consciousness in the four autobiographies in order to trace the inheritance of the female African American autobiographies.Through the analysis of self-consciousness in the four books,it can be found that Hurston’s self-consciousness is manifest in the tension between the textual self in the autobiography and the factual self in the historical documents.It also reveals that Hurston’s self-consciousness is characterized by self-concealment.Angelou’s selfconsciousness lies in her quest for physical appearance and her constant selfexamination of inner femininity in the process of growing up.While Hurston’s and Angelou’s biographies are to explore the nature and substance of consciousness inwardly,Brooks and Lorde direct their self-consciousness toward the public outwardly.Brooks confessed her changing racial consciousness and affirmation of “New Black”through her pursuit of social reputation and responsibility in creation.Her autobiography is full of self-critical elements.Lorde liberates herself from the social constraints on self,reconstructs the mother identity,and voices the sexual difference and preference explicitly,accepting herself as a woman and a lesbian.All in all,the four African American women writers redefine “self” and “women”in succession through their works.From Hurston’s self-concealment and Angelou’s self-examination to Brooks’ self-criticism and Lorde’s self-liberation,and from the inward exploration to the outward exploration,this thesis reveals a traditional quest for self in the development of female African American autobiographies.