Embracing Marginality; A Reading of Maya Angelo’s ‘Phenomenal Woman’

Abstract

Literature of the Oppressed is replete with exercises in subjectivity. The present paper is an attempt to read Maya Angelo’s ‘Phenomenal Woman’ in the background of theories on gender, body and gaze and examine how Angelo alters the aforesaid theoretical canons and embraces marginality. As Angelo embraces her marginality, she celebrates ‘I’ness of her soul and in the process records the way she experiences her body and how others perceive her body.