WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT IN MAYA ANGELOU’S POEM STILL I RISE
Kata Kunci:
Barbara Smith, empowerment, black feminism, Maya Angelou, Still I RiseAbstrak
This study contributes to the Black women’s resistance against the intersecting systems of racial, gender, and class oppression (triple oppression) in the poem of Maya Angelou Still I Rise. This research applies Barbara Smith’s Black feminist framework to reveal how Angelou’s poetic language transforms racialized oppression into collective empowerment. This study is grounded in the limited number of studies that specifically apply Barbara Smith’s Black feminist approach to analyze about women’s empowerment in literary texts. Through a descriptive qualitative approach, the study analyzes the poetic language, imagery, repetition, and historical references to identify representations of triple oppression and resistance in the poem. The findings reveal that Angelou establishes resistance as both a personal and collective political act through self-assertive voice, historical consciousness, and self-redefinition. Ultimately, the poem portrays Black women’s resistance as a continuous process of empowerment that challenges dominant narratives and affirms Black women’s agency and identity. This study contributes to the ongoing discourse on Black women’s writing. It is hoped that this study contributes as a literary work that challenges the dominant and patriarchal systems in the society.
Unduhan
Referensi
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