【Abstract】A Song Flung Up to Heaven can be viewed as one part of a bildungsroman， which encourages all people in adversity to rise. Moreover， its implied readers include all Americans. This paper is devoted to exploring the meaning of this autobiography and its narrative techniques.
　　【Key words】autobiography； bildungsroman； narrative techniques
　　Introduction
　　As one of autobiographical works， A Song Flung Up to Heaven was authored by Maya Angelou， who is acclaimed as “one of the great voices of contemporary literature and as a remarkable Renaissance woman” . According to Encyclopedia of World Biography， she is a versatile woman and continues spreading her legendary wisdom， being “a prolific poet， educator， historian， best-selling author， playwright， civil-rights activist， stage and screen performer， producer and director”.
　　Western critics think highly of Angelou’s serial autobiography， including A Song Flung Up to Heaven. They generally analyze it in terms of patriarchal oppression， or feminist consciousness； additionally， they think the implied readers of it are white Americans and black Americans. However， this autobiography can be viewed as one part of a bildungsroman in a broader sense which encourages all people in adversity to rise. Its implied readers include not mere black people but also white people， Spanish-speaking Americans and Asian Americans. Thus， this paper is devoted to exploring the meaning of this autobiography on the one hand； and on the other it analyzes its narrative techniques.
　　1. Why an autobiography
　　“autobiography may be understood as a recollective/ narrative act in which the writer， from a certain point of his life—the present—looks back over the events of that life and recounts them in such a way as to show that past history has led to this present state of being” （Olney 47）. It is one of traditions for African Americans to choose autobiography as their creation form. As William L. Andrews argues， “Autobiography holds a position of priority， many would say preeminence， among the narrative traditions of black America. It was the eighteenth-century slave narrator who first sang the African-American ‘long black song’ into print” （197）. Through the nineteenth and twentieth centuries， the common theme of black autobiographies is either appealing anti-slavery or pursuing the equality plus freedom， and they combine to prove the vitality and variety of that irrepressible strain of freedom.