Maya Angelou (39 page)

Rape, theme of,
6
,
28
,
63–64
,
69
,
74
,
78
,
163

Religion: in
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
,
65–66
,
69
,
73
; in
Letter to My Daughter,
26–27
; in
Singin' and Swingin' and Getting' Merry Like Christmas
,
104–7

Rent parties,
115

Ringgold, Faith,
2

Roots
(Alex Haley),
19
,
32
,
154–55

Sanchez, Sonia,
97

Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture,
15
,
20
,
35
,
36–37
,
163
,
169
,
174
,
178

Senghor, Leopold,
17

Sexual Revolution,
172

Shakespeare, William,
40
,
166
,
170

Sheikela (African lover),
150
,
166

Simile,
112

Singin' and Swingin' and Getting' Merry Like Christmas
: alternative reading (deconstructive):
113–15
; character development,
103–9
; conflict of opposites,
103–4
; narrative point of view,
100–101
,
102
; plot development,
102–3
; structure and setting,
101–3
; style and literary devices,
111
; thematic issues,
109–11
; title of,
113–14
; use of simile,
112

Slave narrative,
51–56
,
61
,
112
,
157–58

Slavery: in Africa,
142
,
155–57
; in America,
25
,
155–56

Smiley, Tavis,
179

A Song Flung Up to Heaven
: alternate reading (reader-response),
174–76
; and links to
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
,
164
,
168
,
172
,
178
; narrative point of view,
160–62
; plot development and character development,
164–69
; setting,
169–70
; structure,
162–64
; style and literary devices,
172–74
; thematic issues,
170–72
; title of,
163–64
; use of metaphor,
173–74

Son-Jara
(African epic),
51

Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC),
8
,
116
,
124

Spencer, Anne,
16
,
17

Spielberg, Steven,
141

Spiritual,
19
,
20
,
22
,
25
,
40
,
55
,
56–58
,
61
,
105
,
138
,
156
,
163

Standing at the Scratch Line
(Guy Johnson),
12

Stein, Gertrude,
39

“Still I Rise” (poem),
19
,
179

Tolbrook, L. D. (lover),
88–89
,
92–93
,
98

Two Fingers Mark (lover),
26
,
28

Vignette,
132–33
,
146
,
172–73

Wake Forest University,
2
,
5
,
34
,
36
,
166
,
177
,
178

Walker, Alice,
56
,
97
,
98
,
141

Watts (Los Angeles),
161

Westboro Baptist Church,
177

“When Great Trees Fall” (poem),
19
,
179–80

Winfrey, Oprah,
2
,
19
,
21
,
22
,
26
,
30
,
177

Women: A Journal of Liberation
,
77

World War II,
7
,
16
,
61
,
72
,
80

Wright, Richard,
41–42
,
50
,
75

About the Author

MARY JANE LUPTON
is professor emeritus at Morgan State University in Baltimore, Maryland, where she served as graduate director of the English department and was the first recipient of the Ruthe T. Sheffey Award for Scholarship. A founder of
Women: A Journal of Liberation
, she was one of the coeditors of this Baltimore-based magazine from 1970 to 1984. She is the author of numerous articles on African American and Native American literature and coauthor, with Emily Toth and Janice Delaney, of
The Curse: A Cultural History of Menstruation
(1976 and 1989). Professor Lupton is the author of a groundbreaking feminist book,
Menstruation and Psychoanalysis
(1993). Her biography of poet Lucille Clifton was published in 2006. She and her husband, Dr. Kenneth H. Baldwin, reside in Cape May, New Jersey.