Understanding I know why the caged bird sings
Subtitle: a student casebook to issues, sources, and historical documents
By: Joanne Megna-Wallace.
Series: The Greenwood Press "Literature in context" series,
Publisher: Greenwood Press
Published: 1998
Place of publication: Westport, Conn
Language: eng
Number of pages: 189
Subjects: Angelou, Maya. -- Examinations -- Study guides.; Authors, American -- Biography -- History and criticism.; African American authors -- Biography -- History and criticism.; Women entertainers -- Biography -- History and criticism.; African American women -- Intellectual life -- 20th century.; Autobiography.
Other titles: I know why the caged bird sings
Description: Maya Angelou's autobiography I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings was nominated for a National Book Award, yet in 1995 it topped the list of books most frequently challenged in schools and libraries. This interdisciplinary collection of documents and commentary explores the historical and social context, as well as the contemporary issues and controversies, raised by Angelou's autobiography.

A rich resource for teachers and students, it will help to enhance the reader's understanding of the historical and social forces that shaped Maya Angelou's experience - race relations in the pre-civil rights South, segregated schools, the African American church, and the African American family. It also examines the issue of childhood sexual abuse, the inclusion of which has been the basis of most of the challenges to the autobiography, and the issue of the work's censorship since its publication.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.