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The Signifying Monkey:

A Theory of African-American Literary Criticism
Front Cover
8 Reviews
Oxford University Press, Dec 14, 1989 - Social Science - 290 pages
Henry Louis Gates, Jr.'s original, groundbreaking study explores the relationship between the African and African-American vernacular traditions and black literature, elaborating a new critical approach located within this tradition that allows the black voice to speak for itself.
Examining the ancient poetry and myths found in African, Latin American, and Caribbean culture, and particularly the Yoruba trickster figure of Esu-Elegbara and the Signifying Monkey whose myths help articulate the black tradition's theory of its literature, Gates uncovers a unique system for interpretation and a powerful vernacular tradition that black slaves brought with them to the New World. His critical approach relies heavily on the Signifying Monkey--perhaps the most popular figure in African-American folklore--and signification and Signifyin(g).
Exploring signification in black American life and literature by analyzing the transmission and revision of various signifying figures, Gates provides an extended analysis of what he calls the "Talking Book," a central trope in early slave narratives that virtually defines the tradition of black American letters. Gates uses this critical framework to examine several major works of African-American literature--including Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God, Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man, and Ishmael Reed's Mumbo Jumbo--revealing how these works signify on the black tradition and on each other.
The second volume in an enterprising trilogy on African-American literature, The Signifying Monkey--which expands the arguments of Figures in Black--makes an important contribution to literary theory, African-American literature, folklore, and literary history.
  

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Review: The Signifying Monkey: A Theory of African-American Literary Criticism

User Review  - Ryan - Goodreads

I read a select few essays from this book junior year in college, but recently felt the urge to finish it in its entirety. Wow, stunning clarity, compelling arguments, and a vast array of knowledgeable texts. HLG definitely reshaped a few lenses here. Read full review

Review: The Signifying Monkey: A Theory of African-American Literary Criticism

User Review  - Julie Bowerman - Goodreads

Fascinating literary critique that is decidedly not easy to read. Read full review

All 8 reviews »

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Selected pages

Contents

PART ONE A Theory of the Tradition
1
The Signifying Monkey and the Language of Signifying
44
Figures of Signification
89
PART TWO Reading the Tradition
125
ZoraNealeHurston and the Speakerly Text
170
Ishmael Reed
217
Alice Walkers Re Writing
239
Notes
259
Index
281
Copyright

Other editions - View all

The Signifying Monkey : A Theory of African-American Literary Criticism: A ...
The Signifying Monkey : A Theory of African-American Literary Criticism: A ...
Henry Louis Gates Jr. Chairman of the Department of Afro-American Studies and W.E.B. DuBois Professor of the Humanities Harvard University
Limited preview - 1988
The Signifying Monkey:A Theory of African-American Literary Criticism
The Signifying Monkey:A Theory of African-American Literary Criticism
Henry Louis Gates
Limited preview - 1988
The Signifying Monkey: A Theory of African-American Literary Criticism
The Signifying Monkey: A Theory of African-American Literary Criticism
Henry Louis Gates
No preview available - 1989
View all »

Common terms and phrases

African Afro-American Afro-American literary ain't Anglo-African babalawo black texts black tradition black vernacular black writers called Celie Celie's chain chapter Color Purple criticism critique Cugoano culture defines dialect divination double-voiced Elegbara Equiano essay Esu's Eyes Were Watching fiction figure formal free indirect discourse function Gronniosaw Herskovits Ibid indeterminacy interpretation Ishmael Reed Janie Janie's Jea's Jes Grew Jody language Legba letters linguistic Lion literal literary tradition Marrant master Mawu meaning metaphor Mitchell-Kernan mode Mumbo Jumbo myth nature Negro novel Ogundipe parody Phillis Wheatley play poems poetry presence Ralph Ellison reader Reed Reed's relation relationship repetition representation represents revision rhetorical strategy ritual Shug Signifyin(g Signifying Monkey slave narratives slavery speak speakerly speech standard English story structure Talking Book Tea Cake tells text's theory things tion tree trickster trope voice Walker Western words Wright writing York Yoruba Zora Neale Hurston

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References from web pages

The Signifying Monkey
Signifying Nothing. by dg Myers. Originally published in the New Criterion 8 (February 1990): 61-64. The American university’s peculiar ability to breed ...
www-english.tamu.edu/ pers/ fac/ myers/ signifying.html

Henry Louis Gates, Jr., from <I>The Signifying Monkey</I>
[This excerpt is from the first chapter of Gates's important book, The Signifying Monkey: A Theory of African American Literary Criticism (New York: Oxford, ...
social.chass.ncsu.edu/ wyrick/ debclass/ gates.htm

Presidential Lectures: Henry Louis Gates: Excerpts
The Signifying Monkey: A Theory of Afro-American Literary Criticism ... The Signifying Monkey: A Theory of Afro-American Literary Criticism New York: Oxford ...
prelectur.stanford.edu/ lecturers/ gates/ excerpts/ monkey.html

JSTOR: The Signifying Monkey: A Theory of Afro-American Literary ...
224 Modern Philology (November 1990) The Signifying Monkey: A Theory of Afro-American Literary Criticism Henry Louis Gates, Jr./New York: Oxford University ...
links.jstor.org/ sici?sici=0026-8232(199011)88%3A2%3C224%3ATSMATO%3E2.0.CO%3B2-Q

The signifying Monkey
Henry Louis Gates, Jr. The signifying Monkey. A Theory of African-American Literary Criticism. CONTENTS. Introduction, xix ...
www.uni-lueneburg.de/ import_export/ 1_11/ 1_11_88_1.html

The Signifying Monkey - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Signifying Monkey: A Theory of Afro-American Literary Criticism is also a work of literary criticism and theory by American scholar Henry Louis Gates ...
en.wikipedia.org/ wiki/ The_Signifying_Monkey

The Signifying Monkey: A Theory of African-American Literary Criticism
The Signifying Monkey: A Theory of African-American Literary Criticism Book by Henry Louis Gates Jr.; 1989. Read The Signifying Monkey: A Theory of ...
www.questia.com/ PM.qst?a=o& d=94390994

ebscohost Connection: The Signifying Monkey: A Theory of Afro ...
Research in African Literatures: Reviews the book "The Signifying Monkey: A Theory of Afro-American Literary Criticism," by Henry Louis Gates Jr.
connection.ebscohost.com/ content/ article/ 1024157083.html;jsessionid=52598DF324D25F7BA9BF9607653AC630.ehctc1

The Signifying Monkey: Towards a Theory of Afro-American Literary ...
... and the “Racial” Self (1987) and The Signifying Monkey: A Theory of Afro-American Literary Criticism (1988). Signifyin' is the practice of representing ...
www.britannica.com/ eb/ topic-687649/ The-Signifying-Monkey-Towards-a-Theory-of-Afro-American-Literary-Criticism

685gates
Some notes & quotes from:. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. The Signifying Monkey: A Theory of African-American Literary Criticism. NY:Oxford UP, 1988. ...
mason.gmu.edu/ ~stichy/ 685gates.htm

About the author (1989)


Henry Louis Gates, Jr. is Chairman of the Department of Afro-American Studies and W.E.B. Du Bois Professor of the Humanities at Harvard University. He is the author of Figures in Black, Loose Canons, and Colored People; general editor of The Schomburg Library of Nineteenth-Century Black Women Writers; and general editor of The W.E.B. Du Bois Institute series.

Bibliographic information

QR code for The Signifying Monkey
TitleThe Signifying Monkey: A Theory of African-American Literary Criticism
Oxford Paperbacks
Oxford University Press paperback
Oxford literature
AuthorHenry Louis Gates
Editionillustrated, reprint
PublisherOxford University Press, 1989
ISBN019506075X, 9780195060751
Length290 pages
Subjects ›  › 

Literary Criticism / American / African American
Social Science / Ethnic Studies / African American Studies
  
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