The Signifying Monkey
Format: Paperback
ISBN13: 9780195060751
Paperback|9780195060751
✨ Featured Offer
Used, Very Good
$9.26
List Price: $19.95
🚚
See all 5 offers from $9.26 FREE standard delivery by: 31 Mar 2026
Overview
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.
| ISBN-13 | 9780195060751 |
|---|---|
| ISBN-10 | 019506075X |
| Weight | 1.00 Pounds |
| Dimensions | 6.25 x 0.75 x 9.25 In |
| List Price | $19.95 |
| Format | Paperback |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Pages | 320 pages |
| Publisher | Oxford Univ Press |
| Published On | 1989-12-14 |
View All Offers
Sort by:
Price
Condition
Seller
Seller Comments
Price
✨ Used, Very Good
Seller details
HPB-Emerald
Dallas, TX, USA
Connecting readers with great books since 1972! Used books may not include companion materials, and ...
Free delivery by: 31 Mar 2026
Used, Good
Seller details
Books From California
Simi Valley, CA, USA
Book shows usage & shelf wear, including creasing and curling edges. Pages are marked with highlight...
Free delivery by: 31 Mar 2026
Used, Good
Seller details
HPB-Red
Dallas, TX, USA
Connecting readers with great books since 1972! Used textbooks may not include companion materials s...
Free delivery by: 31 Mar 2026
Used, Very Good
Seller details
HPB-Emerald
Dallas, TX, USA
Connecting readers with great books since 1972! Used books may not include companion materials, and ...
Free delivery by: 31 Mar 2026
Used, Very Good
Seller details
Sequitur Books
Boonsboro, MD, USA
Size: 9x0x6; [Interesting provenance: From the private library of renowned historian, Philip D. Mo...
Free delivery by: 31 Mar 2026