FIGURES IN BLACK This page intentionally left blank FIGURES IN BLACK Words, Signs, and the "Racial" Self Henry Louis Gates, Jr. OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS New York Oxford Oxford University Press Oxford New York Toronto Delhi Bombay Calcutta Madras Karachi Petaling Jaya Singapore Hong Kong Tokyo Nairobi Dar es Salaam Cape Town Melbourne Auckland and associated companies in Berlin Ibadan Copyright © 1987 by Henry Louis Gates, Jr. First published in 1989 by Oxford University Press, Inc., 198 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10016-4314 First issued as an Oxford University Press paperback, 1989 Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of Oxford University Press, Inc. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Gates, Henry Louis. Figures in Black. Includes index. Contents: Theory and the Black tradition—Phillis Wheatley and the African muse—Rhetorical strategies in Frederick Douglass's Narrative—[etc.] 1. American literature—Afro-American authors— History and criticism. 2. Afro-Americans in literature. 3. Slavery and slaves in literature. 4. Race in literature. I. Title. PS153.N5G27 1987 810'.9'896073 86-21782 ISBN 0-19-503564-X ISBN 0-19-506074-1 (PBK.) 68 1097 5 Printed in the United States of America 'Tis said that words and signs have power O'er sprites in planetary hour; But scarce I praise their venturous part, Who tamper with such dangerous art. Sir Walter Scott, Lay of the Last Minstrel White people leave money to their children, but Black people teach theirs signs, which is far better, Julia Peterkin, Black April Anywhere they go, my people know the signs. Henry Allen This page intentionally left blank For Houston A. Baker, Jr., Kimberly W. Benston, and Robert G. O'Mealley—- friends indeed This page intentionally left blank Acknowledgments During the ten years when the contents of this book were taking shape, several friends and colleagues gave me the benefit of their support—and the benefit of the doubt. Figures in Black would never have been written without the encouragement of many people who seemed to believe in my work long before I was confident enough to do so. I would like to thank the following people for their kindness and generosity: Anthony Appiah, Kim- berly W. Benston, John W. Blassingame Sr., Malcolm Brachman, Kit Luce, Dexter Fisher, William Forbath, Bruce Hawley, Leon Forrest, Dominic Gambardella, Ishmael Reed, Paul Johnson, Mel Watkins and Harvey Shapiro, Robert O'Meally, Robert Silvers, Erroll McDonald, Allida Davison, Wole Soyinka, Carl Brandt, David Brion Davis, Susan Rabiner, Sheldon Meyer, Curtis Church, John Wright, Robert Farris Thompson, Paul Edward Gates, Jonathan and Marianne Fineberg, John and Delgra Childs, Sander Oilman, Richard Popkin, John Holloway, James Olney, Fredric Jameson and Susan Willis, Robert and Michele Stepto, Nancy Stepan, Barbara Johnson, W. J. T. Mitchell, James A. Snead, J. Hillis Miller, Geoffrey H. Hartman, Kitty Mrosovsky, Frank Poueymirou, and Duke Anthony Whitmore. I would like to thank Sharon Adams for her patience and sustenance, and Maggie and Liza Gates for their good will. But it was the late Charles T. Davis who taught me to work to my capacities, to love the literature that I was interpreting, and to hold it in the same