the signifying monkey by henry louis gates jr

Mastery of that language entailed internalization of the master's values, paying lip service, at the very least, to the notion of white superiority. It is not difficult to understand why Africans forcibly transported across an ocean would be suspicious of a language that gave them the status of chattel slaves and defined them as less than human. In black vernacular, Signifying is a sign that words cannot be trusted, that even the most literal utterance allows room for interpretation, that language is both carnival and minefield.

Signifying is verbal play - serious play that serves as instruction, entertainment, mental exercise, preparation for interacting with friend and foe in the social arena. Since this seemingly innocent naming - assigning upper case to black, lower case to white - also implies hierarchy and pecking order, it is itself an example of Signifying. Gates employs a capital letter to distinguish black usage: Signifying. To identify the concept of signifying drawn from Afro-American oral tradition and signal its difference from, as well as convergence with, another universe of discourse, Mr. in his new book situates the critic of comparative black literature, ''at a sort of crossroads, a discursive crossroads at which two languages meet, be these languages Yoruba and English, or Spanish and French, or even (perhaps especially) the black vernacular and standard English.'' The word ''signifying'' is situated where Henry Louis Gates Jr. If you hear the word used by a black person, chances are you'll need something more than a dictionary to understand what the speaker means. IF you look up ''signifying'' in a dictionary, you'll find a set of definitions. They do it to preserve the traditions of 'the race.' '' - From ''The Signifying Monkey.'' Why do they do this? I think they do it to pass these rituals along from one generation to the next. ''It is amazing how much black people, in ritual settings such as barbershops and pool halls, street corners and family reunions, talk about talking.

THE SIGNIFYING MONKEY A Theory of Afro-American Literary Criticism.

The signifying monkey by henry louis gates jr