Signifying Monkey Tales example essay topic

Signifying is a way people (usually in a weak position) use coded language to fool a person (usually in a position of power) who doesn't understand the play on words. The origin of signifying goes back to the African tale of the Signifying Monkey. The Signifying Monkey is a trickster figure of Yoruba mythology; also called Esu-Elegbara in Nigeria and Le gaba among the Fon in Dahomey. Signifying uses one word, preserves its original meaning, but puts another oppositional layer of meaning over it.

The word is both literal and figurative. Here is how Henry Louis Gates, Jr. interprets the Signifying Monkey tales: The signifying monkey invariable repeats to his friend, the Lion, some 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 then trounces the Lion.

The Lion, realizing that his mistake was to take the Monkey literally, returns to trounce the Monkey. It is this relationship between the literal and the figurative, and the dire consequences of their confusion, which is the most striking repeated element of these tales. The Monkey's trick depends on the Lion's inability to mediate between these two poles of signification, of meaning. (p. 55) The Signifying Monkey is an embodiment of the poor man's values and dreams: He is weak and only 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 pimp survives on his 'mouthpiece' by using fast talk, sweet talk, jive, and jaw-block in'. The term 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 attitude toward language, but it is also a social gambit: signifying enables the man and the woman of words to challenge and criticize without becoming committed to any particular 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, 'Fuck you, man", you " ve lost, you took what was in the figurative and put it in the literal thus committing yourself to the fact that your mom is old. Now, if you reply, "well YO mama so old, when she was in school there was no history class", or "yo mama so old, when God said 'let there be light's he hit the switch" then the signifying can continue. This is called Capping, Joining, Ranking, Ripping, Snapping, Dissing, and a number of other terms, depending on where you " re from. Hip Hop Battles have become a way of signifying. In one of the segments from the Hip Hop Battle at the Blue Gator on Monday, March 1 2004, an M.C. brags about his t-shirt; but he also includes some 'sampled' rhymes by Common in his performance. The challenging M.C. signifies on him: M.C. 1...

See this shirt it says Kenko with a K can't test this, man I swear... M.C. 2 You got perfect timing but I admit I love to see fat people rhyming'. You gotta battle me, you sound so sloppy! The K stands for Kinko's for the rhymes that you copy! Here we see that the second M.C. takes a phrase from the prior M.C.'s rhymes, but he turns it around and against him. At the same time, he demonstrates what are legitimate and illegitimate uses of language, specifically of language used by others: you can 'cite' words or phrases, but you can't just copy them, you must do something to them like alter them or add to them. There is signifying in music as well.

Signifying and indirection puts black music in square opposition to the European tradition of music, specifically classical music, which is a tradition of writing. In European classical music, there is one author, the composer, who writes a text or score. The role of the performer is to reproduce or enact the score literally, that is, to be as truthful as possible to the author-composer^1's intent as it is embodied in the score. There is very little room for variation. In the African-American tradition, and most noticeably in jazz, just the opposite is the case: you cite a theme (or someone else's solo) but you modify it, embellish it, signify upon it. Jazz, in other words, never has just one author, there really is no distinction between composer and performer; rather, the entire tradition of the music is the author.

Syncopation also is often a musical form of signifying: instead of playing on the beat, the musician plays 'against' the beat, but in a way which keeps the beat in play; the beat is 'implied'. The structure of signifying is not a simple one. It takes quick wit, defense, and a poker face that would shame the thug gest of the thug. The fact that prowess in this area, specifically in playing the dozens, is shown in the black community at such a young age is mind boggling when you think, academically, about what signifying is. As I said before, it is a way of using figurative language, as well as simile and hyperbole. Signifying is nothing short of a performance.

It can't happen without a performer, space and an audience You use the one universal thing that most people hold dear - their mother - and attack it as outrageously as you can in order to gain the support, laughter, ooh's and a aah's of the crowd. There has to be an audience, because their response is how you know how well you are doing. You can't check in your opponent, because if he is a worthy one, he won't flinch the slightest bit. The performer must be larger than life. This is an important part in the ritual, when the performer comes up with something grandiose, the opponent must one-up in order to keep in the game. There is ritual all throughout signifying.

Everything from the place where it takes place, to the preparation of your next retort is ritual. I know that after I deliver a dis's, I must immediately be thinking of the next, use what he says, add to what I've been thinking of, and deliver again. The ritual begins when you receive your first dis's. I remember when I was in the second grade, and Jason Wa then made a fat joke about my mother, who does happen to be overweight, and I went ballistic.

I got suspended for fighting and on top of that, I was punished by my mother for getting suspended. She told me 'That boy don't know me!" And after about 3 more fights and accompanying suspensions while using the excuse 'He said something about my mommy' it clicked, around 7th grade, that this can be done all in good fun. What I most remember from my youth about 'rank sessions' (a period of time when freestyle capping took place) was where it happened. It always happened on the bus on the way to school. It wasn't an everyday thing, which would take the importance away from it, but when it happened, it was definitely an enjoyable thing. When you are acting any text, you have an objective that directly involves your partner and you know whether or not you " ve succeeded by what your partner does.

In a rank session, your objective is the same: to win the audience. And the audience is fickle, who you are, what you are or are not are all factors in the crowd response. This goes back to the way theatre is done in many non-western cultures where the audience joins in and participates, and they are a major factor in the performance, which is not the case in most western theatre. The audience sits down, is quiet, and claps at the end, maybe a flower is thrown during the curtain call.

But in this form of theatre, which it is, there is a lot more excitement and variation mainly because of the crowd control the performers are responsible for. This should be the norm in theatre, after being exposed to theatre where the audience is a direct part and can join in; I'm tired of 'watching' theatre. This needs to be a new movement in theatre that integrates hip-hop and signifying within to bring in the young crowd, call and response, and audience participation to wake up the old man in the third row who has come to the theatre since he was twenty years old because it was what gave him life, now he's sitting there waiting to clap and get it over with. Theatre needs to be more lively and inclusive.

No longer will the phrase be, 'Honey let's go see some theatre', it will be 'Honey, let's go get into some theatre'. In conclusion, signifying is a pair of crotch-less panties, a nipple-less bra. It has a dual purpose: to convey the primary meaning (to cover the vagina) and to have a small hint of a secondary meaning (to show a sneak peek of the vagina).