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The signifying monkey : a theory of Afro-American literary criticism / Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
- Format:
- Book
- Author/Creator:
- Gates, Henry Louis, Jr.
- Language:
- English
- Subjects (All):
- American literature--African American authors--History and criticism--Theory, etc.
- American literature.
- African Americans--Intellectual life.
- African Americans.
- African Americans in literature.
- Criticism--United States.
- Criticism.
- Oral tradition--United States.
- Oral tradition.
- Mythology, African, in literature.
- African Americans--Folklore.
- American literature--African influences.
- Physical Description:
- 1 online resource (319 pages)
- Edition:
- 1st ed.
- Place of Publication:
- New York : Oxford University Press, c1988.
- Language Note:
- English
- Summary:
- 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 pow
- Contents:
- PART ONE: A Theory of the Tradition; 1. A Myth of Origins: Esu-Elegbara and the Signifying Monkey; 2. The Signifying Monkey and the Language of Signifyin(g): Rhetorical Difference and the Orders of Meaning; 3. Figures of Signification; PART TWO: Reading the Tradition; 4. The Trope of the Talking Book; 5. Zora Neale Hurston and the Speakerly Text; 6. On "The Blackness of Blackness": Ishmael Reed and a Critique of the Sign; 7. Color Me Zora: Alice Walker's (Re) Writing of the Speakerly Text.
- Notes:
- Includes index.
- Bibliography: p.259-280.
- Description based on metadata supplied by the publisher and other sources.
- ISBN:
- 1-283-09780-X
- 9786613097804
- 0-19-972275-7
- OCLC:
- 712015980
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