College English Apr 1992

Ishmael Reed's Rhetorical Turn: Uses of "Signifying" in Reckless Eyeballing

Daniel Punday

Abstract

Critics have failed to account adequately for Ishmael Reed's recent fiction, and generally dismiss it as less interesting than his more controversial early writing. These recent novels seem more straightforward in their plots and messages, and much less experimental in method. I would like to suggest, however, that this apparent clarity is part of a complex and innovative style. We might characterize this style as in the broadest and most pervasive sense-that is, its overall narrative strategies at the level of plot, theme and character are constructed primarily on the way the audience will read and even misread the novel. Reed broadens the definition of the rhetorical aspects of the literary text as part of a larger attempt to reformulate how his own works relate to the AfricanAmerican tradition. Critics have noted that African-American writers often are particularly aware of their precursors and tradition. Reed, however, not only carefully situates himself in relation to tradition in the abstract, but also anticipates in the novel's plot and structure the reactions of actual readers who share that tradition only in a problematic way. Indeed, in Reed's recent fiction this problematic reception of the work becomes the primary content of the novel. The implications of this move force us to reconsider how we are to trace the African-American tradition and to what degree that tradition can remain independent of the readings given it by mainstream American literary culture. I would like to explore such rhetorical workings in one particular recent novel, Reckless Eyeballing (1986). Critics and reviewers unanimously agree that Ishmael Reed is assaulting feminism in Reckless Eyeballing. His protagonist, Ian Ball, is called a notorious sexist, and yet we are invited to suffer with Ball during his persecution at the hands of powerful women in the theatre world. When Reed climactically summarizes Ball's victimization by revealing him as two-headed, he seems to be using that common African-American trope of black double-consciousness. This trope defines black consciousness as split into two identities, one acceptable to and partially created by the white hegemony, the other more authentic but disturbing to that same mainstream society. But if we simply read the trope conventionally, we stumble straight into Reed's trap, and this is what critics

Journal
College English
Published
1992-04-01
DOI
10.2307/377840
CompPile
Search in CompPile ↗
Open Access
Closed
Topics
rhetorical criticism african american rhetorics gender and writing
Export
BibTeX RIS

Citation Context

Cited by in this index (0)

No articles in this index cite this work.

References (0)

No references on file for this article.

CrossRef global citation count: 1 View in citation network → Build reading path →

Related Articles

  1. Pedagogy Apr 2025
    Contributors ↗
    modern rhetorical theory rhetorical criticism african american rhetorics cultural rhetorics first-year composition writing pedagogy basic writing graduate education two-year college teacher development writing centers technical communication professional writing labor and working conditions digital rhetoric multimodality social media literacy studies race and writing gender and writing community literacy literary studies editorial matter
  2. Rhetoric Society Quarterly Jan 2023
    Witnessing the Open Semiosis: A Method for Rhetorical Listening beyond the Human ↗
    Megan Poole
    rhetorical criticism feminist rhetorics african american rhetorics qualitative research multimodality social media gender and writing affect and writing
  3. Rhetoric Society Quarterly May 2022
    Self-Identified as Nonpolitical: Locating Characteristics of African Rhetoric in Nigerian Women’s Words ↗
    Maria Martin
    rhetorical criticism african american rhetorics archival research race and writing gender and writing
  4. IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication Mar 2022
    Embodying Public Feminisms: Collaborative Intersectional Models for Engagement ↗
    Temptaous Mckoy; Cecilia D. Shelton; Carleigh Davis; Erin A. Frost
    rhetorical criticism genre theory african american rhetorics collaborative writing technical communication professional writing race and writing gender and writing body and rhetoric
  5. Pedagogy Jan 2022
    Contributors ↗
    modern rhetorical theory rhetorical criticism genre theory discourse analysis african american rhetorics decolonial rhetorics first-year composition writing pedagogy basic writing writing across the curriculum graduate education teacher development argument collaborative writing transfer assessment portfolios writing program administration writing centers peer tutoring technical communication professional writing archival research digital rhetoric social media grammar and mechanics literacy studies race and writing gender and writing disability studies public rhetoric community literacy literary studies editorial matter