Gates' "The Signifying Monkey"

Gates is very interested in presenting the African-American rhetorical tradition as one that is separate from the classical (white) rhetorical tradition because it is rooted in an entirely different social, political and linguistic context. Any effort to measure or define it, therefore, must emerge from that context; we cannot approach it from the traditional means of analyzing text or rhetoric because, without understanding that context, we fail to understand the language and rhetorical styles it involves. The Signifying Monkey is a metaphor for the common misinterpretation of African-American literature and discourse: it is a tale of a monkey who tricks a lion into believing that an elephant has made demeaning statements about the lion's family members. Because the lion responded to the monkey from a literal, rather than figurative, perspective, he completely misunderstood the monkey. That misunderstanding resulted in a trouncing by the elephant, for which the lion felt embarassed and foolish. Gates provides multiple definitions and examples of what it means to signify - essentially, it is a verbal fluency employed to trick, taunt, cajole, needle, persuade, lie or engage in playful language games. Monkey tales are important to Gates for three reasons: "as the source of the rhetorical act of Signification, as examples of the black tropes subsumed within the trope of Signifyin(g), and as evidence for the valorization of the signifier." We'll talk about what these mean in class, but try to think of why they're important to his thesis. He later mentions the importance of naming language, and it's interesting to note that Gates has been very involved in the development of the first African-American dictionary. Why is this act of "naming" important? How does it play out in today's society? I think it's also important to have a discussion about the relevance of language (or the existence of disparate languages within society) to our educational system. What are its implications for us as educators? For consumers of literature and culture?