The signifying monkey : a theory of African-American literary criticism

The second volume in a ground-breaking trilogy on Afro-American literature, The Signifying Monkey explores the relationships between the African and Afro-American vernacular traditions and black literature, elaborating a new critical approach located within this tradition that allows the black voice to speak for itself.

Looking at the ancient poetry and myths found in African, Latin American, and Caribbean culture - and particularly at 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 of interpretation and a powerful vernacular tradition, that came with black slaves to the New World.