{"product_id":"figures-in-black-words-signs-and-the-racial-self-paperback","title":"Figures in Black: Words, Signs, and the Racial Self - Paperback","description":"\u003cp\u003eby \u003cb\u003eHenry Louis Gates\u003c\/b\u003e (Author)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFor over two centuries, critics and the black community have tended to approach African-American literature as simply one more front in the important war against racism, valuing slave narratives and twentieth-century works alike, primarily for their political impact.\u003cbr\u003e In this volume, Henry Louis Gates, Jr., a leading scholar in African-American studies, attacks the notion of African-American literature as a kind of social realism. Insisting, instead, that critics focus on the most repressed element of African-American criticism--the language of the text--Gates advocates the use of a close, methodical analysis of language, made possible by modern literary theory. Throughout his study, Gates incorporates the theoretical insights of critics such as Bakhtin, Foucault, Lacan, Derrida, and Bloom, as he examines the modes of representation that define black art and analyzes the unspoken assumptions made in judging this literature since its inception.\u003cbr\u003e Ranging from the eighteenth-century poet, Phillis Wheatley, to modern writers, Ishmael Reed and Alice Walker, Gates seeks to redefine literary criticism itself, moving away from a Eurocentric notion of a hierarchical canon--mostly white, Western, and male--to foster a truly comparative and pluralistic notion of literature.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003eBack Jacket\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis insightful book, written by a leading scholar in African-American studies, attacks the notion of African-American literature as a kind of social realism. Insisting, instead, that critics focus on the most repressed element of African-American criticism- the language of the text--Henry Louis Gates, Jr. advocates the use of a close, methodical analysis of language, made possible by modern literary theory.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003eAuthor Biography\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eHenry Louis Gates, Jr.\u003c\/strong\u003e is Chairman of the Department of Afro-American Studies and W.E.B. Du Bois Professor of the Humanities at Harvard University. He is the author of \u003cem\u003eThe Signifying Monkey\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eLoose Canons\u003c\/em\u003e, and \u003cem\u003eColored People\u003c\/em\u003e; general editor of \u003cem\u003eThe Schomburg Library of Nineteenth-Century Black Women Writers\u003c\/em\u003e; and general editor of \u003cem\u003eThe W.E.B. Du Bois Institute\u003c\/em\u003e series.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNumber of Pages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 352\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e 0.84 x 8.43 x 5.73 IN\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eIllustrated:\u003c\/strong\u003e Yes\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication Date:\u003c\/strong\u003e November 30, 1989\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Books by splitShops","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51749687558432,"sku":"9780195060744","price":82.06,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0974\/9764\/5344\/files\/27325e27e7f09829e984fae67e172481.webp?v=1779936285","url":"https:\/\/ebocreations.com\/products\/figures-in-black-words-signs-and-the-racial-self-paperback","provider":"The E-Book Oasis LLC","version":"1.0","type":"link"}