I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

E395439

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings is Maya Angelou’s acclaimed autobiographical work that chronicles her traumatic childhood and coming-of-age in the racially segregated American South.

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Predicate Object
instanceOf autobiography
book
literary work
memoir
adaptationFormat television film
author Maya Angelou
controversialFor depictions of rape
frank discussion of racism
countryOfOrigin United States of America
surface form: United States
criticalReception acclaimed
endsWith Maya Angelou’s teenage motherhood
followedBy Gather Together in My Name
form prose narrative
frequentlyTaughtIn American high schools
American universities
genre African-American literature
autobiography
coming-of-age literature
memoir
hasAdaptation I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings self-linksurface differs
surface form: I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1979 film)
hasCensorshipHistory challenged in school curricula
influenced contemporary memoir writing
language English
literaryMovement African-American autobiography tradition
mainCharacter Maya (Marguerite) Johnson
narrativePerspective first-person
notableTheme overcoming oppression
power of language
resilience
partOfSeries Maya Angelou autobiographies
publicationDate 1969
publisher Random House
setting California, United States
surface form: California

St. Louis, Missouri, United States
surface form: St. Louis, Missouri

Stamps, Arkansas
structure chronological with episodic chapters
subjectMatter Black girlhood
family relationships
identity
literacy
racism
segregation
sexual abuse
trauma
targetAudience adult readers
timePeriod 1930s
1940s
titleOrigin “Sympathy”
surface form: “Sympathy” by Paul Laurence Dunbar

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Referenced by (5)

Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.

Maya Angelou notableWork I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Maya Angelou wrote I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Marguerite Annie Johnson notableWork I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings hasAdaptation I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings self-linksurface differs
this entity surface form: I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1979 film)
Gather Together in My Name follows I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings