The Signifying Monkey (Masterplots II: African American Literature Series)
At a glance:
- Author: Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
- First Published: 1988
- Type of Work: Cultural criticism
- Genres: Criticism, Nonfiction
- Subjects: African Americans, Language or languages, Africa or Africans, Tradition, Slavery or slaves, Literature, Novelists, Storytelling, Gods or goddesses, Captivity, English language
Form and Content
After an informative introduction, Gates divides his study into two parts. Part 1, “A Theory of the Tradition,” includes three chapters that set the background against which part 2 is to be read. Part 2, “Reading the Tradition,” first treats five early narratives of slavery or captivity and then analyzes in separate chapters three novels by twentieth century African American writers.
The preface acknowledges a strong debt to two works: Ralph Ellison’s critical study Shadow and Act (1964) and Ishmael Reed’s novel Mumbo Jumbo...
[The entire page is 2662 words long]
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