ABSTRACT
Ishmael Reed’s work, like that of other writers addressed in this book, is fueled by deep political commitment. Reed’s novels frequently evince this resolve through his trademarked satire, which is scathing and politically ruthless. In perhaps his most famous novel, Mumbo Jumbo, Reed uses this trademark to present his own deeply personal but nevertheless socially critical authorial vision. Reed’s book interweaves this vision with a systematic undermining of white-western constructions of black identity and history. In so doing, Reed offers a version of authorship based on a personal reading of African-American tradition, but one which also has numerous affinities with poststructuralisms reconstruction of the concept.
