|
|
Article: Signifying as a Scaffold for Literary Interpretation: The Pedagogical Implications of an African American Discourse Genre.
- Article from:
- African American Review
- Article date:
- December 22, 1995
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1995 African American Review. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
|
Reviewed by R. Baird Shuman University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Carol Lee's aim in this study, which was the subject of her doctoral dissertation at the University of Chicago, is to extend earlier research, notably that of Geneva Smitherman and Henry Louis Gates, Jr., in such ways as to make it applicable to teaching literature and skills of literary analysis to high-risk inner-city students. Smitherman's Talkin' and Testifyin': The Language of Black America (1977) and Gates's The Signifying Monkey: A Theory of Afro-American Literary Criticism (1988) both emphasize the unique nature of Black English, but, rather than dismissing it as an inferior dialect, as ...