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”[9] and Andrew Delbanco wrote that it put Gates “at the forefront of the most significant reappraisal of African-American critical thought since the 1960s.”[10] 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.”[11] Complaints against it include that Gates focus is exclusively Afrocentric,[11] that he presupposes the signifying tradition and then fits his evidence to conform to the tradition, and that he is guilty of circular logic.[12] 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.[13]
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