Summary: Henry Louis Gates, Jr., The "Blackness of Blackness": A Critique of the Sign and the Signifying Monkey
Editor’s Note: For this assignment, I needed to read and summarize the published piece or content listed below, and then provide a response or assessment of the writing.
Summary
Gates introduces the African American discourse version of signifying as literary forms, including repetition and pastiche, based on cultural actions and traditions that produce blackness in literature. He states that the archetypal signifier is the Signifying Monkey, a trickster figure viewed as a mode for story narration. The Signifying Monkey is the signifier who “wreaks havoc” on the signified through double-talk, making fun of a person, or speaking through gestures and expressions. The signifier then repeats what someone said about a third person in order to trick that person and reverse the current situation. Gates then examines the use of signification in multiple authors’ works, including Hurston, Wright, Ellison, and Reed. Gates focuses the majority of his analysis on comparing the parodies of Ellison and Wright, as well as Reed’s Mumbo Jumbo. Gates states that an author’s text is an intertextual result of previous authors’ works, of which Mikhail Bakhtin referred to as “double-voiced” discourse where one author’s voice affects another author’s voice. In his analysis of Reed’s Mumbo Jumbo, Gates appears to be working to create a case for African American literary theory. His focus lies in the showing the “blackness” of a writer has been naturalized as absent in Western culture. Gates’ analysis focuses on narrative structure, literary forms utilized, and rhetorical strategy, as well as the notion of blackness being a negative essence and a presence.
Response
First, I was happy to read more about signifying because it was the one point in the Parker text that I didn’t completely understand. Gates clarified the subject nicely for me. Second, Gates’ idea that a literary theory should be dedicated to African American literature is one with merit. There is a great deal of literary work from African American authors from which to choose for analysis, and I think a scholar could also apply the theory to non-African American authors, while still analyzing the African American characters in the literature, which would broaden the literary base infinitely. I think his theory may need to be nuanced a bit, however, because he states “blackness is produced in the text only through a complex process of signification.” Although his theory isn’t based entirely on the idea of creating blackness within a text (he discussed how the naturalization of blackness equates to absence, among other concepts), I think some authors and scholars may receive this concept as limited in its definition. For that reason, I’d like to hear the opinions of other African American authors and how they would interpret not only that statement (based on Gates’ definition of signification within African American literature), but also the development of blackness within literature—both from African American authors and non-African American authors. Perhaps the idea of creating blackness within a text would evolve into a more universal concept of how authors create ethnic identity and individuality within text, in general? In this case, Gates claims blackness is created through signification, but perhaps another ethnic group or culture has a different concept for creating their identity in literature.
I’m also questioning Gates’ focus on blackness creation within literature as the main focus of a proposed African American literary theory. He clearly believes the issue of blackness is one of great importance, but is it really the main focus of a theory dedicated to a group of people with such a colorful, long, and tumultuous history? It seems as though if he’s limiting his theory parameters to blackness creation that he’d limit analysis of literary works that demand more. Is identity creation within literature really the main issue that African American authors wanted to express in their writing? Does that identity expression transcend time? Is it a more historical focus that evolved into something else as African Americans became more prominent and accepted within cultures that previously did not accept them? I suppose identity creation and expression could be the main issue they want to relay to readers, but what if it’s not? I know these are Gates’ ideas, and he’s obviously entitled to them, but I wonder if he talked about this idea with other authors prior to writing this book? Is this idea his singular thought or one that he created after surveying other scholars who have some interest and experience in the same area? His analysis of Mumbo Jumbo was well thought out and articulated, but could he apply that same theory to any other piece of literature from another African American author? Or does the theory need to be more defined or include a broader scope to truly be applicable to all African American literature? Compared to other literary theories (I’m thinking of feminism, in particular), Gates’ theory seems underdeveloped at this point, albeit full of potential and promise.