Construction Of Cultural Identity In Diaspora

Maya Angelou is an extraordinarily influential black female writer in contemporary African American Literature.During her lifetime,Angelou creates seven autobiographies and several volumes of poetry.I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings is Angelou's first autobiographical novel published in1969.The novel,which narrates Angelou's diasporic living experiences in southern town and northern cities from three to seventeen years old,reflects her great concern about issues including racism,sexism,black females,national traditions and so forth.Up to now,domestic and foreign researches regarding characters' cultural identities are covered.However,on account of their distinctions on emphatic points,there still remains space to make further interpretations in aspects of its manifestation,reasons and outlets.Therefore,based on theories of diaspora criticism,this dissertation intends to analyze Angelou's diasporic experiences and discuss her cultural identity in diasporic process,which may offer instructions to black women in dilemma.This dissertation covers three parts,respectively introduction,main body and conclusion.The introduction section gives a general knowledge of Maya Angelou,I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings and studies on this novel from home and abroad.Besides,theories of diaspora criticism are introduced as well.The first chapter mainly analyzes embodiments of Angelou's diasporic experiences.Diaspora not only concerns physical level,but emphasizes spiritual“homelessness”.Angelou's geographical diasporic experiences are demonstrated by her intermittent movements between South and North,black community and white society.Angelou's feeling of alienation in mentality and sense of displacement in culture are manifestations of her psychological diasporic experiences.It is Angelou's diasporic life that makes her confused and unsure about personal cultural identity.The second chapter emphatically expounds reasons that cause crisis of Angelou's cultural identity in diaspora.In the first place,Angelou's negligence of African traditional cultures and the disadvantageous impact of traumatic collective memory inblack community lead to deficiency of her national consciousness.What's more,the white racists' hegemonic power exhibited through political repression and cultural control affects Angelou's cognition of ethnic cultural identity.Last but not least,females' silence in face of gender oppression in patriarchal system also exists as one factor which gives rise to crisis of Angelou's cultural identity.The third chapter attaches importance to the reconstructive process of Angelou's cultural identity in diaspora.For one thing,alliances and guidance from black community provide directions for Angelou.For another,Angelou's plural vision generated in diaspora impels her to initiatively pursue discourse power and seek living space in racialized society.Apart from that,Angelou's recognition of poly-ethnic coexistence,her devotion to motherhood and self-writing all prompt the formation of her hybrid identity which symbolizes Angelou's arrival in “third space” and the ultimate reconstruction of her cultural identity.The conclusion part points out that Angelou discloses black race's living predicaments by self-narration of her life experiences.The unfavorable social conditions as well as her longstanding diasporic life make Angelou trap into the crisis of cultural identity.Her survival strategies in cruel social settings should be an alert to black women who,facing oppressive social circumstances,must defend their ancestral cultures and meanwhile,positively pursue their discourse power so as to release from adversities.It is only in this way can they embrace their cultural identities and achieve persistent survival in American society.