Critical Reception
Upon publication in 1988, The Signifying Monkey received both widespread praise and notoriety. Prominent literary critic Houston A. Baker wrote that it was “a significant move forward in Afro-American literary study” and Andrew Delbanco wrote that it put Gates “at the forefront of the most significant reappraisal of African-American critical thought since the 1960s.” It won an American Book Award in 1989. However, it was also closely scrutinized to the point of “being more talked about than read, more excoriated than understood.” Complaints against it include that Gates's focus is exclusively Afrocentric, that he presupposes the signifying tradition and then fits his evidence to conform to the tradition, and that he is guilty of circular logic. Nonetheless, The Signifying Monkey has helped contribute to the reputation of Gates as one of the two most important (along with Houston Baker) African-American literary theorists of the late 20th and early 21st century.
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