The Signifying Monkey

The second volume in a trilogy on Afro-American literature, "The Signifying Monkey" explores the relationships between the African and Afro-American vernacular traditions and black literature, elaborating a 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 system of interpretation and a powerful vernacular tradition, that came with black slaves to the New World.