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''A Song Flung Up to Heaven'' is the sixth book in author Maya Angelou's series of autobiographies. Set between 1965 and 1968, it begins where Angelou's previous book ''All God's Children Need Traveling Shoes'' ends, with Angelou's trip from Accra, Ghana, where she had lived for the past four years, back to the United States. Two "calamitous events"〔 frame the beginning and end of the book—the assassinations of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr. Angelou describes how she dealt with these events and the sweeping changes in both the country and in her personal life, and how she coped with her return home. The book ends with Angelou at "the threshold of her literary career",〔 writing the opening lines to her first autobiography, ''I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings''. As she had begun to do in ''Caged Bird'', and continued throughout her series, Angelou upheld the long tradition of African-American autobiography. At the same time she made a deliberate attempt to challenge the usual structure of the autobiography by critiquing, changing, and expanding the genre. Most reviewers agreed that the book was made up of a series of vignettes. By the time ''Song'' was written in 2002, sixteen years after her previous autobiography, Angelou had experienced great fame and recognition as an author and poet. She recited her poem ''On the Pulse of Morning'' at the inauguration of President Bill Clinton in 1993, becoming the first poet to make an inaugural recitation since Robert Frost at John F. Kennedy's in 1961. She had become recognized and highly respected as a spokesperson for Blacks and women. Angelou was, as scholar Joanne Braxton has stated, "without a doubt, ... America's most visible black woman autobiographer".〔 She had also become, as reviewer Richard Long stated, "a major autobiographical voice of the time".〔 The title of ''Song'' was based upon the same poem, by African-American poet Paul Lawrence Dunbar, the basis of her first autobiography. Like Angelou's other autobiographies, the book was greeted with both praise and disappointment, although reviews were generally positive. Reviewers praised Angelou for "the culmination of a unique autobiographical achievement",〔 while others criticized her for coming across as "smug".〔 The 2002 spoken-word album by the same name, based on the book, received a Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album in 2003. ==Background== ''A Song Flung Up to Heaven'' (2002) is the sixth of Maya Angelou's series of autobiographies, and at the time of its publication it was considered to be the final installment. It was completed 16 years after the publication of her previous autobiography, ''All God's Children Need Traveling Shoes'' (1986) and over thirty years after the publication of her first, ''I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings''.〔 Angelou wrote two collections of essays in the interim, ''Wouldn't Take Nothing for My Journey Now'' (1993) and ''Even the Stars Look Lonesome'' (1997), which writer Hilton Als called her "wisdom books" and "homilies strung together with autobiographical texts".〔 She also continued her poetry with several volumes, including a collection of her poems, ''The Complete Collected Poems of Maya Angelou'' (1994). In 1993, Angelou recited her poem ''On the Pulse of Morning'' at the inauguration of President Bill Clinton, becoming the first poet to make an inaugural recitation since Robert Frost at John F. Kennedy's inauguration in 1961.〔 Her recitation resulted in more fame and recognition for her previous works, and broadened her appeal "across racial, economic, and educational boundaries".〔 By 2002, when ''Song'' was published, Angelou had become recognized and highly respected as a spokesperson for Blacks and women.〔 She was, as scholar Joanne Braxton has stated, "without a doubt, ... America's most visible black woman autobiographer".〔 She had also become "a major autobiographical voice of the time".〔 Angelou was one of the first African-American female writers to publicly discuss her personal life, and one of the first to use herself as a central character in her books.〔 Writer Julian Mayfield, who called her first autobiography "a work of art that eludes description",〔 stated that Angelou's series set a precedent not only for other Black women writers, but for the genre of autobiography as a whole.〔 Als called Angelou one of the "pioneers of self-exposure", willing to focus honestly on the more negative aspects of her personality and choices.〔 For example, while Angelou was composing her second autobiography, ''Gather Together in My Name'', she was concerned about how her readers would react to her disclosure that she had been a prostitute. Her husband Paul Du Feu talked her into publishing the book by encouraging her to "tell the truth as a writer" and to "be honest about it".〔 "Song" took 16 years to write because it was so painful for her to relive the events she described, including the assassinations of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr.〔 She did not celebrate her birthday, April 4, for many years because it was also the anniversary of King's death, choosing instead to send his widow Coretta Scott King flowers.〔 Although ''Song'' was considered the final installment in her series of autobiographies, Angelou continued writing about her life story through essays,〔 and at the age of 85, published her seventh autobiography ''Mom & Me & Mom'' (2013), which focused on her relationship with her mother.〔 The spoken word album based on ''Song'' and narrated by Angelou received a Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album in 2003.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「A Song Flung Up to Heaven」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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