Influences On Maya Angelou

Maya Angelou was influenced by writers from all walks of life. The authors that influenced Angelou's writing are discussed in the essays, "Mary Jane Lupton on the Poets Who Influenced Maya Angelou," by Mary Jane Lupton, and "Dolly A. McPherson On Angelou's Use Of Comic Irony," by Dolly McPherson. Maya Angelou's comic ironies and self parodies were influenced by writers from all backgrounds and races including whites, Africans, and Asians. "[These writers] influenced the way [Angelou] wrote, thought, and imagined."

(TS)In "Mary Jane Lupton on the Poets Who Influenced Maya Angelou," Lupton discusses the different types of writers who influenced Maya Angelou's writings. (SD)Maya Angelou was influenced by white women poets such as Emily Dickinson when she was younger. (CM)She was also intrigued by black women writers such as Georgia Douglas Johnson, Francis Harper, and Anne Spencer. (CM) Other writers who influenced her writing later on were black women such as Georgia Douglas Johnson, Francis Harper, Anne Spencer, William Shakespeare, Edgar Allan Poe, James Weldon Johnson, Edna St. Vincent Millay, and Dorothy Parker. (SD)Angelou enjoyed the passion of Millay's writing and the sarcastic humor of Parker's writing. (CM)In reference to their writings, Maya Angelou remarks, "I'm rarely wry. I think I'm funny. I love to be funny." (CM)Maya Angelou compares her comedic writing to that of Dorothy Parker and her own passion to the writing of Edna St. Vincent Millay. (SD)Angelou used Georgia Douglas Johnson's lyric "The Heart of a Woman" as the title to her fourth autobiography. (CM)Her autobiographies explain her journey in Asian, African, and African American literature. (CM)Angelou states about autobiographers, "So I think we're all on journeys, according to how we're able to travel, overcome, undercome, and share what we have learned." (CS)Maya Angelou was intrigued by varities of writing from all over the world.

(TS)"Dolly A. McPherson on Angelou's Use of Comic Irony," explains how Maya Angelou's writing is sensitive, poised, humorous, realisitic, and empathetic. (SD)Dolly A. McPherson explains that black autobiographers often write with humor and irony when describing painful experiences. (CM) Maya Angelou uses this same comic irony in her writing to keep with this tradition. (CM)Angelou often uses comic irony in her writing to describe her relationships with other people. (SD) Maya Angelou also successfully uses self parody in her writing, which was new to black autobiographies. (CM)McPherson states, "Angelou reveals her youthful silliness, her loneliness, her pretensions, her aspirations, and her instability," particularly in the first four volumes of her autobiography. (CM)McPherson says that Maya Angelou used these themes in her writing to reveal her character and personality as she matured into adulthood. (SD)Maya Angelou's comic irony is not only huumorous for the sake of laughter, but also for the sake of reality and truth. (CM)McPherson says about Angelou's writing, "Behind the laughter is a vision of human weakness, an empathy for people's foibles and their efforts to retain some semblance of dignity in the midst of the ridiculous." (CM)Maya Angelou writes realistically of the need for a tension between stability and instability.(CS)In Maya Angelou's writings, an understanding of self is represented and excellently portrayed through the use of comic irony and self-parody.

Maya Angelou creatively uses her influences from other writers with comic irony. "Mary Jane Lupton on the Poets Who Influenced Maya Angelou," by Mary Jane Lupton, and "Dolly A. McPherson On Angelou's Use Of Comic Irony," by Dolly McPherson are essays that explain the roots of Maya Angelou's writing and ideas. Maya Angelou was intrigued by writers from around the world. The variety of Maya Angelou's writing influences allow for effectiveness in her self parodies and comic ironies.



Works Cited
Lupton, Mary Jane, and Harold Bloom. “Mary Jane Lupton on the Poets Who Influenced Maya Angelou”
Bloom’s Major Poets: Maya Angelou (2001): 30-31. InfoBase Publishing.
EBSCOhost. Three Rivers Community College Library. 11 October 2010
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McPherson, Dolly A. “Dolly A. McPherson on Angelou’s Use of Comic Irony.”
Bloom’s Guides: I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (2004): 69-71. InfoBase Publishing. EBSCOhost. Three Rivers Community College Library. 11 October 2010 .