Creative Writing”

Foutzitzi1 University of Western Macedonia Faculty of Education M.A. Degree: “Creative Writing” MA Thesis “The Political Movements in America through the Poetry of Maya Angelou, Joy Harjo and Ana Castillo” Maria Foutzitzi Supervisor: Dr. Tatiani Rapatzikou Aristotle University of Thessaloniki Florina, 2020 Foutzitzi2 University of Western Macedonia Faculty of Education M.A. Degree: Creative Writing MA Thesis Title: The Political Movements in America through the Poetry of Maya Angelou, Joy Harjo and Ana Castillo Student name: Maria Foutzitzi Supervisor: Dr. Tatiani Rapatzikou, Associate Professor, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki Members of the supervising team: Dr. Triantafillos Kotopoulos, Associate Professor, University of Western Macedonia Dr. Anna Vakali, Laboratory and Teaching Personnel (EDIP), University of Western Macedonia Foutzitzi3 Abstract The present thesis, focuses on the discussion of the following poetry collections: And Still I Rise (1978) by Maya Angelou, She Had Some Horses (1983) by Joy Harjo and My Father Was a Toltec (1995) by Ana Castillo, with emphasis placed on the political movements taking place at the time of their composition, such as the Civil Rights Movement, The Red Power Movement, and The Chicano Movement. The thesis attempts to highlight the way in which these poets align their poetic voice with the struggles of their own people by shedding light on the various oppressions (racial, gender, financial) minority members, such as African Americans, Native Americans, Chicanos/as have endured. It is important that each one of these poets studied here becomes through their writings a spokesperson for her own community, managing in this way to bring to the readers’ attention the realities of those who live in the margins of the American mainstream. Conclusions are drawn on the basis of the poets’ thematic similarities and writing strategies. Finally, a short chapter follows including five poems written by me inspired by Maya Angelou, Joy Harjo and Ana Castillo’s work. keywords: Civil Rights Movement, Chicano Movement, Red Power Movement, Black Female Poetry, Native American Female Poetry, Chicano Female Poetry, Intersectionalism, Feminism, Colonialism, Racism, Xicanismo, Maya Angelou, Joy Harjo, Ana Castillo. Foutzitzi4 Περίληψη Η παρούσα διπλωματική εξετάζει τις ακόλουθες ποιητικές συλλογές: And Still I Rise (1978) της Μάγια Ανγκέλου, She Had Some Horses (1983) της Τζόυ Χάρζο και My Father Was a Toltec (1995) της Άνα Καστίγιο και επικεντρώνεται στα πολιτικά κινήματα που γεννήθηκαν και εξαπλώθηκαν την περίοδο της συγγραφής τους, όπως το Κίνημα για τα Πολιτικά Δικαιώματα των Αφρο-Αμερικανών (Civil Rights Movement), το Κίνημα για τα Πολιτικά Δικαιώματα των Αυτοχθόνων της Αμερικής (Red Power Movement) και το κίνημα για τα Πολιτικά Δικαιώματα των Αμερικανο- Μεξικανών (Chicano Movement). Σκοπός της διπλωματικής είναι να εντοπίσει τον τρόπο με τον οποίο αυτές οι ποιήτριες συντονίζουν την ποιητική τους φωνή με τις δυσκολίες των λαών τους και πως ρίχνουν φως στις διάφορες καταπιέσεις (σε σχέση με τη φυλή, το φύλο, την τάξη) που αντιμετωπίζουν μέλη της Αφρο-Αμερικάνικης και της Αμερικανοπ-Μεξικάνικης κοινότητας καθώς επίσης και Αυτόχθονες της Αμερικής. Εξίσου σημαντική παρατήρηση είναι πως κάθε μία από τις ποιήτριες που θα εξεταστούν γίνεται μέσα από την ποίησή της εκπρόσωπος της κοινότητάς της, καταφέρνοντας μ’ αυτόν τον τρόπο να γνωστοποιήσει στους αναγνώστες την πραγματικότητα που ζουν όσοι άνθρωποι ζουν στο περιθώριο και όχι μια συμβατική ζωή. Τα συμπεράσματα περιλαμβάνουν ομοιότητες στη γραφή και στα θέματα που αναπτύσσουν οι τρεις ποιήτριες. Κλείνοντας, ακολουθεί ένα κεφάλαιο με πέντε ποιήματα γραμμένα από μένα στα πλαίσια της δημιουργικής γραφής όπου η έμπνευσή τους προήλθε από τη δουλειά της Μάγια Αγγέλου, της Τζόυ Χάρζο και της Άνα Καστίγιο. Λέξεις κλειδιά: Κίνημα για τα δικαιώματα των Αφρο-Αμερικανών, Κίνημα για τα Δικαιώματα των Αυτόχθονων της Αμερικής, Κίνημα για τα Δικαιώματα των Μεξικανο-Αμερικανών, Φεμινισμός, Διαθεματικότητα, Ποίηση Αφρο-Αμερικανών Γυναικών, Ποίηση Αυτόχθονων Γυναικών της Αμερικής, Ποίηση Μεξικανο- Αμερικανών Γυναικών, Αποικιοκρατία, Ρατσισμός, Μεξικανο-Αμερικάνικος Φεμινισμός, Ρατσισμός, Μάγια Αγγέλου, Τζόυ Χάρζο, Άνα Καστίγιο. Foutzitzi5 Table of Contents Introduction……………………………………………………..………………...p.7 Chapter 1: Maya Angelou: And Still I Rise: Black female poetry……………p.11 1.1 Introducing the poet……………………………………………………………p.11 1.2 Maya Angelou and the Civil Rights Movement………………...………….…p.12 1.3 The depiction of abuse in Maya Angelou’s poetry…………………………….p.16 1.4 The “feminization of poverty” in Angelou’s poetry…………………….......…p.21 1.5 Unpaid women’s labor in Angelou’s poetry……………………………….…..p.23 Chapter 2: Joy Harjo: She Have Some Horses: Native American female poetry …………………………………………………………………………………....p. 27 2.1 Introducing the poet…………………………………………………..………..p.27 2.2 Colonialism in Joy Harjo’s poetry……………………………………………..p.28 2.3 Memory as an act of decolonizing the land in Harjo’s poetry…………….......p. 30 2.4 Language and survival in Harjo’s poetry………………………………….….p.31 2.5 The Red Power movement, intersectionality and feminism in Harjo’s poetry........................................................................................................................p.34 2.6 Sexual abuse in Harjo’s poetry………………………………………......…….p.38 2.7Non-human entities in Harjo’s poetry…………………………………….…….p.40 Chapter 3: Ana Castillo: My Father was a Toltec: Chicano Literature………p.43 3.1 Introducing the poet…………………………………………………………....p.43 3.2 Chicano/a identity and Chicano literature…………………………………….p.44 3.3 The importance of language in Castillo’s poetry………………………..…….p.46 3.4 Chicanos/as and labor in Castillo’s poetry…………………………………….p.47 3.5 Chicano feminism: Xicanismo………………………………………...……….p.50 Conclusions………………………………………………………………..….…p.55 Creative Writing………………………………………………………………....p.58 Works Cited…………………………………………………………………..….p.79 Foutzitzi6 Acknowledgments I would like to thank my supervisor, Dr. Tatiani Rapatzikou for her guidance, support and patience during the writing of this thesis as well as my creating writing professors, Dr. Triantafillos Kotopoulos and Dr. Anna Vakali for their help. Finally, I would like to thank my friends and family for support. Foutzitzi7 Introduction The current thesis will be shedding light on three important female poets, as in the case of Maya Angelou, Joy Harjo and Ana Castillo with attention paid to those poetry collections that result from the political movements of the 1970s and early 1980s. The choice of these three writers is based on the tremendous impact their work had and still has on society, as is proven by the various awards they have received and the need to examine poetry written by individuals who identify as women in relation to other types of oppression they might be enduring simultaneously, for example colonialism, racism, classicism, as an attempt to provide an intersectional reading of their poetry. Moreover, for the needs of this thesis I will be using the term “women” and “females” as opposed to a more inclusive term, for example individuals who identify as women, as the time frame this thesis examines (1970s-1980s), lacks the use of such language both in the academic and the personal sphere. Maya Angelou, an African American woman writer, received multiple awards, among which was the Literarian Award for her contributions to the literary community in 2013. She was also awarded the National Medal of Arts by President Bill Clinton in 2000 and the Presidential Medal of Freedom which is the highest civilian honor in the U.S. by President Barack Obama in 2010. Furthermore, Angelou was invited in the early 1990s by President Bill Clinton to write and read an inaugural poem named On the Pulse of Morning. Her first autobiography I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969), was nominated for a National Book Award in 1970 while Angelou had been the recipient of over 50 honorary degrees until her death in 2014. Joy Harjo, a Native American woman writer belonging to the Muscogee nation, is also the recipient of multiple awards, the most important of which being her title as a US poet laureate in June 2019. In addition, Harjo received the American Book Award in 2012 as well as the 2013 PEN Center USA prize for creative nonfiction for her autobiography Crazy Brave (2012), while she was also shortlisted for the International Griffin Poetry prize in 2015 for her poetry collection Conflict Resolution for Holy Beings (2015). Her awards also include the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Native Writers Circle of the Americas, the Josephine Foutzitzi8 Miles Poetry Award, the Wallace Stevens Award from the Academy of American Poets, the William Carlos Williams Award from the Poetry Society of America, and the American Indian Distinguished Achievement in the Arts Award. She has also received fellowships from the Arizona Commission on the Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Rasmuson Foundation, and the Witter Bynner Foundation. In 2017 she was awarded the Ruth Lilly Prize in Poetry. Ana Castillo, a Mexican or Chicana woman writer, has also received a long list of awards. She was the recipient of the Lambda literary award for Bisexual nonfiction and the international Latino Book award for her book Black Dove: Mamá, Mi’jo, and Me (2016). The American Book award from the Before Columbus Foundation was given to her for her first novel The Mixquiahuala Letters (1986; reprinted 1992) while she also received the Lambda award for her book Give it to me (2014). Her

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