The Theatrical and Ritual Aesthetics of Signifying :: essays research papers

Signifying is a way people (usually in a weak position) use coded language to fool a person (usually in a position of power) who doesnt understand the play on words. The product line of signifying goes back to the African tale of the Signifying Monkey. The Signifying Monkey is a trickster ascertain of Yoruba mythology also called Esu-Elegbara in Nigeria and Legaba among the Fon in Dahomey. Signifying uses one word, preserves its original meaning, tho puts another oppositional layer of meaning over it. The word is both verbal and figurative. Here is how Henry Louis Gates, Jr. interprets the Signifying Monkey talesThe signifying monkey invariable repeats to his friend, the Lion, roughly insult purportedly generated by their mutual friend, the Elephant. The Monkey, however, speaks figuratively. The Lion, indignant and outraged, demands an apology of the Elephant, who refuses and indeed trounces the Lion. The Lion, realizing that his mistake was to take the Monkey misprintly, retu rns to trounce the Monkey. It is this relationship amid the literal and the figurative, and the dire consequences of their confusion, which is the most striking repeated element of these tales. The Monkeys trick depends on the Lions inability to mediate between these two poles of signification, of meaning. (p.55)The Signifying Monkey is an embodiment of the poor mans value and dreams He is weak and whole has his speaking skills (slang mouthpiece) to survive on, and he uses it to play the powers of the jungle against one another. The same way a gratify survives on his mouthpiece by using fast talk, sweet talk, jive, and jaw-blockin. The edge signifying refers to the playful, humorous indirection or innuendo, the talking around an implied meaning, the ambiguous metaphor, the invective that only works if the opponent lacks humor and responds in a literal fashion. Signifying is an side toward language, but it is also a social gambit signifying enables the man and the cleaning woma n of words to challenge and criticize without becoming committed to any contingent claim or meaning for only the response will tell. For instance, if I say, Yo mama so old, her social security number is 1, and you say, issue you, man, youve lost, you took what was in the figurative and put it in the literal frankincense committing yourself to the fact that your mom is old. Now, if you reply, well YO mama so old, when she was in tutor there was no history class, or yo mama so old, when God said let there be light she make the switch then the signifying can continue.