Trauma and Memory in Maya Angelou’s Autobiographical Fiction
Trauma and Memory in Maya Angelou’s Autobiographical Fiction

Summary/Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to explore Maya Angelou’s depiction of trauma in her autobiographical fiction as a marginalized female experience which shapes the identity of the subject and speaks about the psychological integrity of the Black female. Memory functions as the process of psychological healing through the narrative reformulation of her life during childhood and adulthood. Angelou has deliberately expanded the conventional structure of the autobiographical genre by the fragmentary approach and the rejection of the idea of alterity based on cultural differences, which she has rather attributed to the existing power relations, and by making use of self-censorship techniques such as silences, metaphors, signifiers in order to fight injustice. My paper is based on the series of seven autobiographical novels by Maya Angelou, published between 1969 and 2013.

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