Traditional structural-functionalist anthropological accounts of West African and African American Trickster figures, such as the Signifying Monkey, have long posited that these characters serve as societal pressure valves. By temporarily inverting social hierarchies within the safe confines of a narrative, the Trickster theoretically allows marginalized groups to vent frustrations, ultimately reinforcing the dominant social order when the Trickster is inevitably punished. However, this interpretation relies heavily on prioritizing the plot's resolution over its textual execution. When examining the Signifying Monkey tales, post-structuralist critics highlight the Monkey’s linguistic excess and rhetorical play. Although the Monkey is physically overpowered by the Lion at the narrative’s conclusion, the sheer virtuosity of the Monkey's verbal manipulation throughout the tale actively destabilizes the semantic authority of the physically dominant characters. Thus, the subversive power of the Trickster resides not in narrative victory, but in the structural disruption of the discourse itself.
Based on the passage, the author's reference to the Monkey's "linguistic excess and rhetorical play" serves which of the following logical functions? (Select all that apply)
- It provides a concrete textual mechanism through which the Trickster figure subverts dominant power structures.Cevap
- It highlights a narrative element that exposes the interpretive limitations of the traditional structural-functionalist framework.Cevap
- CIt concedes a point to traditional anthropologists by acknowledging that the Trickster's subversive actions are ultimately contained by the plot.
- DIt emphasizes a theoretical flaw in the post-structuralist approach to analyzing the narrative outcomes of African American folktales.
- EIt catalogs the specific narrative events that typically occur before the Trickster is physically overpowered by the dominant characters.