 Angelou 's autobiographies conform to the genre 's standard structure : they were written by a single author , they were chronological , and they contained elements of character , technique , and theme . In a 1983 interview with African @-@ American literature critic Claudia Tate , Angelou called her books autobiographies . When speaking of her unique use of the genre , Angelou acknowledged that she has followed the slave narrative tradition of " speaking in the first @-@ person singular talking about the first @-@ person plural , always saying I meaning ' we ' " . Reviewer Elsie B. Washington agreed , and stated that A Song Flung Up to Heaven " offers a glimpse into the life of a literary icon in the making " influenced by historical events and personalities such as Malcolm X , Martin Luther King , Jr . , and James Baldwin . 
