This book is aimed at constructing the Black female subjectivity of African-American women through the works of chosen poets: Marilyn Nelson, Rita Dove, Elizabeth Alexander, and Patricia Smith. The study delves into the intricacies of African-American women’s issues such as objectification, rape, motherhood, and racism. This work is unique, as it takes up the study of African-American women’s poetry and studies different creative expressions and artistic genres in their struggle for identity. It illuminates Black female aesthetics, and the liberation of self, thus, celebrating their blackness. By examining historical and contemporary issues, the book invites the readers to re-counter the dominance of the established White Order and stimulates the question of the agency of Black women. This book debunks the perceptions and offers a genuine contribution to the discourse on African-American women’s lives. It goes beyond the customary reflections on women’s experiences and addresses the poignant odyssey of ‘women of color’, marking a shift to ‘politics of survival’.

"Inventing black women fills important gaps in our understanding of how African American women poets have resisted those conventional notions of gender and race that limit the visibility of Black female subjects. The first historical and thematic survey of African American women's poetry, this book examines the key developments that have shaped the growing body of poems by and about Black women since the end of slavery and Reconstruction, as it offers incisive readings of individual works by important poets such as Alice B. Neal, Maggie Pogue Johnson, Alice Dunbar Nelson, Sonia Sanchez, Lucille Clifton, and Audre Lorde, as well as many others."--BOOK JACKET.

Expanding the boundaries of both genre and gender, contemporary American women are writing long poems in a variety of styles that repossess history, reconceive female subjectivity, and revitalize poetry itself. In the first book devoted to long poems by women, Lynn Keller explores this rich and evolving body of work, offering revealing discussions of the diverse traditions and feminist concerns addressed by poets ranging from Rita Dove and Sharon Doubiago to Judy Grahn, Marilyn Hacker, and Susan Howe. Arguing that women poets no longer feel intimidated by the traditional associations of long poems with the heroic, public realm or with great artistic ambition, Keller shows how the long poem's openness to sociological, anthropological, and historical material makes it an ideal mode for exploring women's roles in history and culture. In addition, the varied forms of long poems—from sprawling free verse epics to regular sonnet sequences to highly disjunctive experimental collages—make this hybrid genre easily adaptable to diverse visions of feminism and of contemporary poetics.

A History of Twentieth-Century American Women's Poetry explores the genealogy of modern American verse by women from the early twentieth century to the millennium. Beginning with an extensive introduction that charts important theoretical contributions to the field, this History includes wide-ranging essays that illuminate the legacy of American women poets. Organized thematically, these essays survey the multilayered verse of such diverse poets as Edna St Vincent Millay, Marianne Moore, Anne Sexton, Adrienne Rich, and Audre Lorde. Written by a host of leading scholars, this History also devotes special attention to the lasting significance of feminist literary criticism. This book is of pivotal importance to the development of women's poetry in America and will serve as an invaluable reference for specialists and students alike.

Recovering the Black Female Body recognizes the pressing need to highlight through scholarship the vibrant energy of African American women's attempts to wrest control of the physical and symbolic construction of their bodies away from the distortions of others.

Thesis (M.A.) from the year 2018 in the subject Didactics for the subject English - Literature, Works, grade: 1.5, National University of Modern Languages, Islamabad (Institute of English), course: English Literature, language: English, abstract: In this research paper, the researcher has tried to find out the image of black female depicted in Maya Angelou's poems. This research has been conducted by qualitative and analytical method because this research has not numerical data. After collecting data, the researcher has analyzed poems and supported by particular idea of feminist Sara Mills. The researcher has chosen only three poems of Angelou from "The Complete Collected Poems of Maya Angelou which are ‘Still I Rise’, ‘Phenomenal Woman’ and ‘Caged Bird’". This study has been conducted by the use of black feminism theory and also focused on words, lines and stanzas. This research gives rise to enhance the argument in literature studies particularly Black Feminism self-esteem. Thus, it can enable others to organize research on African-American females. The analysis has explained that black woman’s different images are depicted in Maya Angelou's poems. In the first poem ‘Still I Rise’, Maya Angelou presents black female as a leader of the movement and challenges the society arrangement about black people. In the second poem, ‘Phenomenal Woman’, Maya Angelou describes a standard of beauty that beauty is not having beautiful face and slim smart body and thin lip. She says that a black woman can be phenomenal woman through her confidence and good personality and proud herself being black woman. In last poem ‘Caged Bird’, Maya Angelou shows underdevelopment of black woman due to tradition. As a coloured woman Maya Angelou raises her voice and says that soon, black people will be free. The present research concludes that author is presenting theme of hope in all above poems and she is a courageous black woman.