Homeward boundDomestic space, identity and political agency in maya angelou's autobiography
- Gómez Reus, Teresa (coord.)
ISSN: 1696-8166, 1989-9998
Datum der Publikation: 2005
Titel der Ausgabe: Habitar, escribir, conquistar el espacio
Nummer: 5
Seiten: 133-155
Art: Artikel
Andere Publikationen in: Feminismo/s
Zusammenfassung
This article aims at exploring the representation of domestic space in Maya Angelou's six-volume autobiography. It will attempt to prove the existence of a direct relationship between the narrator's appropriations and negotiations of domestic space, and the ongoing definition of both her individual and collective identity. We shall argue that the construction of domestic spaces along the texts is not based on the traditional (and simplistic) opposition between public and private space. Rather, and considering the narrator's nomadic experience and her active participation in the redefinition of Afro-American identity and political visibility, her configuration of domestic space evolves incessantly and performs, at least, three fundamental functions: it is a site of self-assertion, belongingness to a collective identity, and political agency.
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