Oppressions of Women of Color in Angelou and Durrani’s Autobiographies

This study is the critical discourse analysis of two autobiographies, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969) by Angelou (1928-2014) and My Feudal Lord (1995) by Durrani (b. 1953). Both the autobiographies have been chosen because they are written by the women of color and deal with female oppression, suppression, subordination, male dominance, sufferings of women of color not only because of gender but also because of color, culture and class. Angelou’s narrative portrayed the African-American female oppression in American society and Durrani’s narrative portrayed the oppression of Pakistani women in Subcontinent. The author has chosen the selected autobiographies in order to compare the oppressions of women who belong to different societies in order to challenge the construction of homogenous category of women of color as well as to compare and contrast how oppressions of women have been portrayed in the selected narratives. The author has employed the theoretical frameworks of Accad (1991), Tohidi (1991), Beauvoir (1949/1953), Lorde (1984), hooks (1981) and Mohanty (1984) in order to analyze the selected extracts from the feminist perspective.