Introduction 1.Hurston, Angelou and Cary's Lives and Works 1.1 Hurston's Life and Works 1.2 Maya Angelou's Life and Works 1.3 Lorene Cary's Life and Works 2.Criticism on AfricanAmerican Autobiographies in the United States and China 3.The Theoretical Framework and Structure of the Book Chapter One The Role of Black Autobiography in American Literature 1.1 American Black Autobiography: Now and Then 1.1.1 The DeveloPment of American Black Autobiographies 1.1.2 The Characteristics of American Black Autobiographies 1.2 The Values and Traits of American Black Women's Autobiographies 1.2.1 The Values of American Black Women's Autobiographies 1.2.2 The Traits of American Black Women's Autobiographies 1.3 The Autobiographies by Hurston, Angelou and Cary 1.3.1 Zora Neale Hurston and Her Autobiography 1.3.2 Maya Angelou and Her Autobiographies 1.3.3 Lorene Cary and Her Autobiography Black Ice Chapter Two Hurston's Dust Tracks on a Road as a Cultural Autobiography 2.1 Truth and Fiction in Hurston's Dust Tracks on a Road 2.2 Subverting the Conventional Patterns of Black Autobiography 2.1.1 Subverting the Themes of American Black Autobiography 2.1.2 Subverting the Traditional Gender Roles as a Woman 2.1.3 Subverting the Structure of American Black Autobiography 2.3 The Breakthrough of Hurston's View on Black Culture 2.3.1 The Influence of Franz Boas on Hurston's View on Cultures 2.3.2 Hurston's View on the Fluidity and Hybridity of Black Culture 2.4 Representing and Celebrating Black Folk Culture as Its Interpreter 2.4.1 Representation of the Richness of Black Culture 2.4.2 The Community of Eatonville as the Representative of Black Culture Chapter Three Inheriting and Surpassing Tradition in Angelou's I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings 3.1 The Influence of the Tradition on Angelou's I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings 3.1.1 The Journey from Enslavement to Freedom 3.1.2 The Power of Words as a Way to Freedom 3.2 The Voice of the American Black Community 3.2.1 The Racial Oppression of the American Black Community 3.2.2 The Strength of the American Black Community 3.2.3 The Strategies of Racial Protest 3.3 The Song of a Black Female Self 3.3.1 Maya's Journey to SelfDiscovery 3.3.2 Celebrating Female Bonding and Motherhood 3.4 Surpassing American Black Autobiographical Tradition Chapter Four A New Quest for Identity in Lorene Cary's Black Ice 4.1 The Black Students' Dilemma in Dominant White Culture 4.1.1 Cary's Psychological Trauma Caused by the Blacks' History of Slavery 4.1.2 The Obsession with the Problem of Racial Loyalty 4.2 ttomi Bhabha's Theory of Hybridity and the Advantages of Marginal Space 4.2.1 Bhabha's Theory of Hybridity 4.2.2 The Advantages of Marginal Space 4.3 Exploring the Possibility of Crossing the Racial Divide in Black Ice 4.3.1 The Source of PowerBlack Culture and Its Storytelling Tradition 4.3.2 Finding One's Place by Crossing the Racial Dividing Line 4.3.3 The Role as a Black Teacher and a Crossover Artist 4.3.4 Cary's New Interpretation of Folk Stories Chapter Five The Narrative Strategies in the Three Autobiographies 5.1 The Influence of Main American Literary Thoughts on the Autobiographies of Hurston and Angelou 5.1.1 Modernism in Dust Tracks on a Road 5.1.2 Realism and Other Narrative Skills in 1 Know Why the Caged Bird Sings 5.2 Unreliability and Dual Readership in Dust Tracks on a Road 5.3 Narrative Perspective in I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings 5.4 The Quest for Black Oral Traditions 5.4.1 Signifying in Dust Tracks on a Road as a Speakerly Text 5.4.2 The Blues Aesthetics in 1Know Why the Caged Bird Sings 5.4.3 Storytelling Tradition as a Healing Therapy in Black Ice Conclusion Works Cited Acknowledgements
