Multiple Critical Perspectives on Maya Angelou’s I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Exams of Voice

Download Multiple Critical Perspectives on Maya Angelou’s I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings and more Exams Voice in PDF only on Docsity! P.O. Box 658, Clayton, DE 19938 www.prestwickhouse.com 800.932.4593 ™™ Teaching Maya Angelou’s from Multiple Critical Perspectives I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings ™ Prestwick HousePrestwick House Item No. 303397 Teaching Maya Angelou’s from Multiple Critical Perspectives I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings ™ Click here to learn more about this Multiple Critical Perspectives! Click here to find more Classroom Resources for this title!  Sample Prestwick House Multiple Critical Perspectives™ Literature Literary Touchstone Classics Literature Teaching Units Grammar and Writing College and Career Readiness: Writing Grammar for Writing Vocabulary Vocabulary Power Plus Vocabulary from Latin and Greek Roots Reading Reading Informational Texts Reading Literature More from Prestwick House I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings Teaching Maya Angelou's from Multiple Critical Perspectives by Rhonda Carwell Multiple Critical Perspectives™ ™ P r e s t w i c k H o u s e , i n c . 17 Multiple Critical PerspectivesI Know Why the Caged Bird Sings Activity One Exploring the Positive and Negative Influences of Male and Female Characters 1. Copy and distribute handout: I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings: Feminist Activity One Worksheet. 2. Divide the class into six groups or a number of groups divisible by six. 3. Assign each group, or allow each to choose, one of the following characters: • Bailey, Jr. • Bailey, Sr. • Vivian (Mother Dear) • Momma • Mrs. Flowers • Mr. Freeman 4. Have students complete the worksheet, using the novel to provide examples for each of the given categories. 5. Reconvene the class and discuss the following: • Which characters play more of a role in Maya’s character development: male or female? Why? • Which characters impact her positively and negatively at the same time? 6. As a class, discuss which characters are believable or not and in what ways. How would all of the above change if the story were told by Bailey, Jr.? P r e s t w i c k H o u s e , i n c . 25 Multiple Critical PerspectivesI Know Why the Caged Bird Sings Notes on the Psychoanalytic Theory THe term “PsycHological” (also “psychoanalytical” or “Freudian Theory”) seems to encompass two almost contradictory critical theories. The first focuses on the text itself, with no regard to outside influences; the second focuses on the author of the text. According to the first view, reading and interpretation are limited to the work itself. One will understand the work by examining conflicts, characters, dream sequences, and symbols. In this way, the psychoanalytic theory of literature is similar to the Formalist approach. One will further understand that a character’s outward behavior might conflict with inner desires, or might reflect as-yet- undiscovered inner desires. Main areas of study/points of criticism of the first view: • There are strong Oedipal connotations in this theory: the son’s desire for his mother, the father’s envy of the son and rivalry for the mother’s attention, the daughter’s desire for her father, the mother’s envy of the daughter and rivalry for the father’s attention. Of course, these all operate on a subconscious level to avoid breaking a serious social more. • There is an emphasis on the meaning of dreams. This is because psychoanalytic theory asserts that it is in dreams that a person’s subconscious desires are revealed. What a person cannot express or do because of social rules will be expressed and accomplished in dreams, where there are no social rules. Most of the time, people are not even aware what it is they secretly desire until their subconscious goes unchecked in sleep. Psychoanalytic Theory Applied to I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings P r e s t w i c k H o u s e , i n c . 27 Multiple Critical PerspectivesI Know Why the Caged Bird Sings 2. Reference to a literary work is made in order to establish an understanding of the mind of the author. For example, judging by Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, one might reasonably conclude that Harper Lee herself was sympathetic to the plight of black Americans. 3. Studying the literary work of an author is a means of knowing the author as a person. The more novels by Charles Dickens one reads, the more one can infer about the author’s beliefs, values, hopes, fears, etc. 4. An artist may put his or her repressed desires on the page in the form of actions performed by characters. Pay attention to behaviors that are not socially “normal” to see if there is any evidence of the id at work. For example, an author who consistently writes stories in which his female characters are weak, dependent, or unintelligent might be expressing latent misogynist tendencies. Likewise, a female author might express her latent misandry through weak, blatantly evil, or thoroughly inconsequential male characters. 