ISSN: 2265-6294

Black Feminism as a Structure of Dual Resistance in Maya Angelou's Select Poem

Main Article Content

Ajmol Hussain Laskar

Abstract

he historiography of feminism is based on the movement, narratives, and ideologies concerning the equal rights of women. But this stance has differed based on different cultures, ideologies, regions, and religions. Any movement or revolution comes as a reaction against some set of ideologies or principles. Feminism as such is a movement against the norms that bound women in a different sphere where women are deprived of the rights, justice, and equality that of what men usually enjoy. The predetermined gender role forces a woman to work and live on the structures that were originally designed by male figures. This set binary of men and women is the driving force that differentiates one inferior and another being superior. Race comes forefront in describing the term, Black. The racial stance of black and white is again a binary that discriminates one over another. Feminism as such is a perspective which traditionally being counted from the perspective of white women who were being marginalized by their male counterparts. But the emergence of black feminism is a reaction against black male dominance and white racial superiority as well. The traditional feminist notion always sought the right of middle-class white women where the voice of black women are deprived and remained unnoticed. The varied differences in feminist stance gave rise to the third wave of feminism where the oppression of black women and the women of the different races got way in its expression. Maya Angelou’s poetry is a testimony of that dual resistance structure. This research will analyse Angelou’s firsthand experience as a black women that depicted in her poem Phenomenal Women and Equality and the resistance that carried forward strengthening the black feminist movement.

Article Details