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A Study Guide for Maya Angelou's "Phenomenal Woman"
A Study Guide for Maya Angelou's "Phenomenal Woman"
A Study Guide for Maya Angelou's "Phenomenal Woman"
Ebook31 pages19 minutes

A Study Guide for Maya Angelou's "Phenomenal Woman"

By Gale and Cengage

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A Study Guide for Maya Angelou's "Phenomenal Woman," excerpted from Gale's acclaimed Poetry for Students. This concise study guide includes plot summary; character analysis; author biography; study questions; historical context; suggestions for further reading; and much more. For any literature project, trust Poetry for Students for all of your research needs.
LanguageEnglish
Release dateSep 28, 2016
ISBN9781535830843
A Study Guide for Maya Angelou's "Phenomenal Woman"

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    A Study Guide for Maya Angelou's "Phenomenal Woman" - Gale

    13

    Phenomenal Woman

    Maya Angelou

    1978

    Introduction

    Award-winning dramatist and poet Maya Angelou published the poem Phenomenal Woman in 1978. Angelou is perhaps best known for her autobiographical volume I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, the first in what would become a six-volume autobiography. Like many of Angelou's works, the free-verse poem Phenomenal Woman explores notions of female identity. In this poem, the speaker describes her unique appeal to men, noting that in spite of the fact that she does not possess certain qualities associated with traditional notions of beauty, she nevertheless has the power to draw men to her. The poem incorporates a series of lists that itemize the woman's attractive attributes, and a refrain repeated at the close of each stanza highlights the woman's sense of herself as the phenomenal woman of the poem's title.

    Critics have explored the poem's focus on positive self-image and have described the work as an examination of African American sisterhood. At the same time, the poem is regarded as a declaration of female beauty and confidence that is both individual and universal. First published in 1978 in And Still I Rise, Phenomenal Woman has been reprinted in a number of volumes, including The Complete and Collected Poems of Maya Angelou (1994) and Phenomenal Woman: Four Poems Celebrating Women (1995).

    Author Biography

    Angelou was born Marguerite Johnson on April 4, 1928, in St. Louis, Missouri. She would later change her name to Maya Angelou. Her parents were Bailey and Vivian Baxter Johnson. Angelou and her brother were sent to live in Stamps, Arkansas, after their parents divorced, when Angelou was just three years old. There, the children were raised by their maternal grandmother, who owned a country store. In her autobiographies, Angelou documents the

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