The Politicization of Love in American Poet Laureates Inaugural Poems: A Case Study of Amanda Gorman and Maya Angelou

Abstract

Black females have always played an important role in literature. Amanda Gorman and Maya Angelou are two of the most pivotal literary figures whose art has contributed to the liberty and independence of black women all over the world. They have employed their literature in order to discuss social problems, and this is the reason why their poetry can be regarded as political poetry. This research intends to analyze the theme of love and the way it is politicized in some poems by Gorman and Angelou. In fact, this study inspects the amalgamation of love and a black feminist politics since the examination of the penetration of love into politics reveals that black feminism's politicization of love exceeds the problems of identity politics, primarily intersectionality. In order to achieve this goal, hooks has been selected as this paper's main theoretician owing to her preoccupation with the intersectionality of race, capitalism, and gender, and what she has labeled as these three features' aptitude to cause and extend women's suppression and class dominion.