The image of African−Americans has undergone a tremendous re−structuringin the American novel over the past several decades. The methods of deconstructing
and reconstructing, no matter how one defines those terms, have been various andsubstantial. Many writers have taken an aggressive approach in demanding a re−evaluation of how “African−American” can be conceived and defined, while others
have taken a quasi−legalistic accounting of historical abuses that swing between theself−righteous and the self−pitying. Of course, novels slip aside those descriptions
and often work with many approaches at once. One thing is certain, though, theAfrican−American novel has demolished former images and recreated compelling
new ones.
While some novelists feel politically misguided or relish accusative tones, ingeneral, African−American novelists write with circumspect care and keen awarenessof the images they create and promote. They know all too well how images shapeattitudes and actions in the real world. For the best writers, the intensity of theiroverall creativity has not been hindered by this hyper−attention to images. Instead,their creativity seems to flourish amid the often conflicting demands of setting therecord straight, expressing justifiable outrage, and forcing a fresh image into thefray that works within the novel as a viable construct, within society as a criticism
and within culture as a potential new archetype. Few other groups of writers haveever had to struggle with this particular burden of historical, social and narrative
claims to creative attention. Few other groups have been so successful.
Among the African−American writers of the post−war generation, Ishmael Reed
is one of the most compelling for the way he constructs the image of African−
Americans without foregoing a lively imagination, potent sense of humor and acommitment to many ends at once. Like the trickster archetypes he draws on for
inspiration, Reed knows how to have a good time. He takes more than his share of
poetic liberties, exploits his narrative license and relishes post−modern ironic play.
―1―

Ishmael Reed’s Subversively Potent Images

He uses the past and the present as ironically as any African−American writer
working today. Of course, even the term “African−American” must be taken with aspoonful of irony as Reed’s background and aims are a mish−mash of influences,
genetic and narrative, and of loyalties, progressive and entertaining.
In particular, his two novels, Mumbo Jumbo and Japanese by Spring take direct
aim at the confusing images of African−Americans by interrogating their deepest
structures and hidden interiors. He creates a fable of subversion in Mumbo Jumbo(MJ) and a re−vamped Bildungsroman in Japanese by Spring (JBS). Both novels
seek to re−establish the image of African−Americans on far different foundations
than many of his contemporary novelists, and with more earnest intent disguised in
his playful exterior. He succeeds as much because of his sense of humor and narrative
strategies, as because of the righteousness of his cause.
Reed’s narrative methods of constructing images stand out for their ironic
sensibility, balanced point of view and clever strategizing. Several of his techniques
are essential to understanding how he creates images and how different he is fromother writers. First of all, Reed is a master of subverting from the inside what hesees as being imposed from the outside. His focus is on opening up pre−conceived
images and re−imagining them. Secondly, his narrative is a continual disruption ofcoherent process. His plots move to their own rhythms, a consciously musical metaphor
in MJ and to their own tempo, as in the unusual pacing in JBS. Third, in both novels,
Reed combines the realism and fantasy that grows out of a sharp foregrounding of
language, whether arising from the tradition of oral literature and communal
storytelling, as in MJ, or from the everyday patter of modern campus speech, in
JBS. Kinds of language use create their own images, and Reed wants to re−fashion
those with different kinds of language.
The fourth key strategy that Reed employs draws from the tradition of African
mythology and oral storytelling. Both novels have a kind of thematic tricksterism,
where the reader comes to believe the narrative heads in direction with one intent,
only to find it is really another direction altogether. Reed himself becomes a kindof trickster figure, as Lindroth argues “Reed, like his protagonists, dons the trickster’smask to expose society’s hidden evils” (Lindroth 1). It is easy to see why Reedlikes the trickster imagery. The sense of re−historicizing in this trickster fashion, as
in MJ and re−politicizing, also in trickster fashion, as in JBS offer a unique vision of
how to reconvene images in the hard work of cultural growth and historical understandingthat the novel offers. This rewriting of history and repositioning of power dynamics
creates a different pattern of image−construction altogether.
These specific strategies considered one by one may not appear radical, but
the combined effect shows Reed’s status as one of the masters of the contemporary―2―

novel. Image−ination and re−image−ination are very different processes, but run parallel
to each other. This double movement, to take apart the ideologically constructed
image already accepted and to recreate a new one, requires a delicate sense ofbalance. This is a double burden on the writer, but one that many have succeeded inaccomplishing. His commentary not only positions himself within the larger culture,but brings the novel out into the political academic debates raging in America inthe early 1990s.
Image and identity are closely intertwined, though can be separated within anarrative sphere. Image is the external counterpart to the interior experience of identity.
In this paper, image will refer to the representation of a coherent singularity in thesocial or cultural sphere, while identity will refer to the individual or interior experiencing
of coherence. An examination of how Reed ironizes from the inside, disrupts narrative
process, employs language, plays tricks with the themes and re−historicizes and re−politicizes cultural constructs can show the achievements not only of his novels, but
all novels that travel a similar path.

Ironizing from inside
Turnabout is fair play for Reed and he clearly delights in exposing the limitationsof African−American images from his position inside. His irony achieves bothhilarious and critical effects. He is a satirist bent on exposing cultural mendacity
and social hegemony. His strategy for achieving that is his ironic point of view, onethat is bitter, but never aggressive. In MJ and JBS, he easily sketches caricatures
based on predominant stereotypes, but renders those ineffectual as characters within
his narrative or inverts their characteristics through plot twists or humorous reversals.
In the campus novel JBS, Reed finds a sleepy, ‘second−class’ university set inits ways. All the characters, from teachers to administrators to students, have stakedout their positions and eagerly defend them, though without much show of teeth.
Into this academic and political stalemate comes Dr. Yamato, who, when Japanesebackers buy the university and install him as president, starts to institute changes to theuniversity with ironic fury. In what could be a direct quote from many an actual
college president, Yamato says, “My backers would like to eliminate all of thesecourses which allow for so much foolishness” (JBS 90). What foolishness he refers
to is all of the African, Chicano, Asian−American, Native−American and African−
American studies departments. In one directive, they are summarily eliminated. In
place of those departments, “We will have a new department, European Studies,with the same size budget and faculty as the rest” (JBS 90). Reed here perfectly
captures the process of university politics with all its authoritarianism and absurdity.
―3―

Ishmael Reed’s Subversively Potent Images

His point, though, underlines the random and precarious nature of departments,
which seek to argue for bodies of knowledge that further or ignore images. The
images created within a methodology or discipline achieve social effects far beyond
the simplicity of their formation. His sense of irony is furthered when Yamato decides
that the entire history of Western philosophy could be reduced to one week. Reedindirectly poses the question of what type of image would be created by such a syllabus.
How important would the “dead white males” of the western canon appear to begiven one week in a survey course?
Reed’s satiric intent brings out the frail interior structure of the university
system, one that Reed knows from his own position as a faculty member himself.
From another direction, too, Yamato’s takeover poses problems for the ways academia
establishes images. Japanese language becomes a required course for all students, andteachers. The central character Puttbutt has no problem as he has been studying Japanese,but many of the other faculty members have their learning abilities exposed as at leastsemi−fraudulent by this requirement. Reed of course is indulging in exaggeration,a standard of American satire, but as each faculty member is presented with a copyof a Japanese textbook, the language text becomes an ironic marker, (much like English
dictionaries in Japan), of what must be acceded to in the process of ideologicalconquest.
A further component of the academic system is put to the test through Reed’s
irony. As Puttbutt takes over the college in JBS, he sends out letters:
He had sent a letter to the campus deconstructionists, informing them of theirtermination. The letters said you’re fired. Those who believed that the words “you’re
fired” meant exactly that could finish the semester. Those who felt that the words
only referred to themselves would have to leave immediately. (JBS 132)
This satirical play aims at part in deconstructionists and emphasizes the degree towhich satire is seen not as a play of signification but as a real−world action that hasmeaning beyond the novel. Irony is the basic, underlying tone of Reed’s works as
he seeks to move from imposed discourse to flexible knowledge. He achieves thiswith several strategies (as mentioned before, disrupted narrative, playing with language,
thematic tricksterism and re−historicizing and re−politicizing) that all manage, likea trickster to “contuse communication, reveal the ambiguity of knowledge and playwith perspective” (Davis qtd in Anderson 3). Reed’s biting the hand that feeds him−
the university system−is at the center of his approach.
His attack on the stereotypical roles offered in academia, though, must be juxtaposed
against his positive view of the role of writer. Anderson notes importantly that “For―4―

Reed, it is all about the artist with no boundaries and no limitations” in which “theartist is merely one of several arbiters of meaning”(Anderson 4). The rather narrowfocus of JBS contrasts with MJ. That novel also works with exaggeration, but witha broader focus. As Ludwig points out, “Most statements in Mumbo Jumbo may be
hyperbolic or far−fetched, yet their intrinsic content as statements is clear” (Ludwig2). MJ stretches its boundaries much farther and uses language as a scalpel to open
up festering internal problems.
The characters in MJ have no ironic function in themselves, as Puttbutt does
in JBS, but they serve larger goals of satire and parody. Papa LaBas, Black Herman
and the other figures take action, rather than cynically observe from the sidelines.
The “inside” from which Reed ironizes in MJ, is American society itself. His huge
jumps in narration, massive canvas, and sharply directed hyperbole, are directed
towards ironizing the American culture as a whole. The division of forces into the
Dionysian dancing of Jes Grew and the controlling ideology of the Atonists is satireof sweeping force and disruptive chaos. Reed’s method of creating images intends
to “expose society’s hidden evils, and the weapon wielded with telling force is scatologicalparody bordering on the obscene” (Lindroth 1). Reed’s novels have a repeated senseof opening up what appears to be a self−referential, complete system to reveal its failings
and insecurities.
That he does this within the context of African−American images manages tosimultaneously redirect attention to the origins of those images, ponder the purpose
and process of their original formation and suggest directions for reconsidering
more accurate and productive images. Through satire and irony, Reed works frominside hegemonic structures, America and academia, outwards towards a more
open and honest expressive territory.

Disrupting narrative process
Another strategy Reed employs is a disruptive narrative. For Reed, this means
setting aside narrative conventions to enhance or sublimate elements of his novels
that contribute to images. Reed’s narratives refuse to produce images in even the sameways as other contemporary African−American novelists. Though JBS makes use of
the conventions of the campus novel and MJ of the detective novel, MJ eventually
reveals itself as an anti−detective novel while JBS ranges far beyond the usual campus
political debates. Reed’s inversions, tangling and departures from those forms create
less stable images, but ones whose uncertainty have a powerful authenticity.
In JBS, Reed takes apart the monoculturalist ideology of the American campus
by a hyperbolic insertion of the monoculturalist ideology of Japanese. His intent is―5―Ishmael Reed’s Subversively Potent Images

not a counter−racist repositioning of African−American culture as better than Asian,instead, what he attacks is any and all monoculturalist ideologies. The outrageousstatements of Dr. Yamato put even right−wing nationalists in Japan to shame. So, too,
one senses that Reed is being provocative by including the Japanese. Repeatedly
through the novel, he displays a love of Japanese culture, especially in the detailsof paintings, writers and the language that Puttbutt has accumulated, if not quite
internalized. The Japanese takeover is more plot device and rhetorical question
than representation of any actuality.
So, too, Reed employs ideological types, whose purpose is “as one−dimensional
vessels for his critiques of monoculturalism and university life” (Womack 3). The
characters do not necessarily demand fleshing out, as he sketches their essence intraditional satiric form. Whenever one expects a realistic presentation of character, Reed
gives a typology, and when one expects a certain simplicity of characterization, heoffers a telling, fleshed out set of details. In short, his characterization is a disruptive
process that keeps the narrative from accruing a totalizing ideological power. He
subverts not only the dominant culture, but also subverts his own narrative.
One of the characters he includes in his novel is Ishmael Reed. In JBS, this has
satirical effect, but also seeks to disrupt the narrative. As with his way of ironizing,
authorial intrusion seeks to ground the narrative in the outside world, rather than in
itself. The character Puttbutt knows the “character” Ishmael Reed and talks with him
at lunch. Their conversation heightens the ironic criticism. When Puttbutt mentions
his search for a better home, Reed gives him the name of a realtor. The irony hereis the difficulty of African−Americans needing a special realtor to find housing in
traditionally white neighborhoods where homes are hard to find, and secondly thata “real” character is giving an “imaginary” character help. The doubling of irony
here attacks the process of “redlining,” an American practice of segregation throughhousing, while making a joke out of a serious practical problem faced by many
African−Americans.
In their conversation, Puttbutt and Reed also touch on other issues such as
diversity on campus. Puttbutt, who has been vocal against diversity in an “Uncle Tom”
manner for years, has changed his mind when it serves his promotion. Puttbutt says,“From now on my policy is one of enlightened self−interest” (JBS 131). Reed isshocked at his hypocrisy and when Puttbutt hands him a copy of his Japanese
language textbook “Japanese by Spring,” (the same title as the novel itself), Reedcan only look at him in a daze, not even having the energy to argue back when
Puttbutt claims that “the twenty−first century is going to be a yellow century” andthat Reed better get on the “yellow Shinkansen before it leaves the station” (JBS
131). Previously, Puttbutt had already reviewed a book by Reed with this summary―6―

dismissal, “For those looking for plot, character development and logic, skip this one.”
The irony here of course is that Reed’s techniques rely almost entirely on “disnarrated”
plot, undeveloped characters and emotional and comic logic far removed from the
Platonic logic that Dr. Yamato disdains. The narrative disruption of this conversation
hardly furthers the underlying plot but offers a tantalizing bit satiric critique. Reeddoesn’t mind stopping for a joke, even at his own expense.
It’s hard to ascertain how Reed’s quoting of himself affects the flow of thenarrative, but it does slow the pace, yet grounds it outside the diegesis. That Reedwants to speak for himself inside a novel that is speaking for him is a marvelous
play of narrative force that suggests conversations might just be as relevant togenuine dialogue as novelistic forms. The effect of his disruption also moves thediscourse of the novel to of a spoken language, rather than written, and the charadeof authorial intent is given a good laugh. This movement towards orality is part of
Reed’s strategy for re−creating images based on traditional African motifs, rather
than western forms.
Including such conversations comically undermines the force of the author’s voice,while disallowing a totalizing ideology. It’s as if he says, you can’t have your novel
form and take it seriously, too. Rather than have the novel speak for Reed, as many
authors, critics and readers might imagine, he undercuts this authorial belief by
putting himself in as a character that speaks for himself. It’s as if to say, thepotential for misunderstanding what his narrative says, as has been the case withmany African−American writers, is so high that he needs to doubly enunciate hiswords, once in the novel as a whole and once in his own character’s voice.
In MJ, his disruptive technique is considerably different. Reed contrives huge
leaps in narrative time, inserts facts from research, such as bomb tonnage in America’s
wars, and has different voices speaking through different narrative threads. All of thesestrategies make the novel an uncertain provider of definitive images. In contrast to thecorrective, didactic tendencies of African−American writers such as Ralph Ellison
or James Baldwin, Reed challenges the very notion that a narrative can provide ameaningful and relevant image of any type. His characters remain symbolic ciphersof ideological positions, yet they do not seek to speak for all African Americans or
claim to be better images. Rather, the image−making capacity of narrative is brought
into question.
MJ appears to be a detective novel with a central quest to find the cause of“Jes Grew,” the dance−infection that keeps spreading in all directions. However,
MJ is “no conventional work of detection, but a metaphysical detective novel that
defies western logic and refuses closure” (Swope 2). Like the trickster figures thatappear as central images, Reed’s novel works at the “cultural crossroads,” both―7―

Ishmael Reed’s Subversively Potent Images

metaphysically and narratively. He sends the reader in all directions from thatcrossroads and thereby, as Swope argues, creates “opposing versions of space...” in “newspatial forms and new combinations that in their very production upset the spatial
order of the West; that is, the spatial logic upon which the detective relies” (Swope 3).
One might consider Reed’s work an anti−detective novel, as the discovering, rather
than solving, of mysteries is a central thrust of the novel.
The crime detective narrative is taken apart in other ways as well. Not only
does the classic detective reconstruct the past to make sense of it, but the goal is to
expose a crime. However, the “crime” remains a mystery. The Hoodoo religion that
informs the narrative is not concerned with explanations but with respect andadmiration for how Jes Grew converts its believers. The western detective narrativeis thus refused completely, and the narrative disruption he enacts is a sort of undoingof the crime itself. Encoded into the narratives of history and crime is an ideologicalquest for rectitude, retribution and punishment. Reed denies the initial crime that
initiates history, and the images that history produces. The refusal expresses itself
as chaos within the novel, but a type of chaos that is fertile and productive of newimages. As Swope points out,
Reed suspends his reader, not on a side−as does Atonism−or at an end point−as
does the science of detection−but at a multi−directional, multi−cultural crossroads where
the lines that define history and reality are ruptured, regenerated, and revised.”(Swope 7)
Whether or not the crime is solved or the narrative of history established is lessimportant than how the crossroads works as an ongoing symbol of creative cultural
production. Reed directs us not to a new image of African−Americans but to thecultural fount where images originate.
This theme is emphasized by many of the attempts by the Atonists to stop thegrowth of Jes Grew, and by extension the power of dance, the central expressive art
form of African culture. All through MJ, the Atonists seek to build highways, clear
paths dissected the landscape that can be policed and controlled, while Jes Grew
spreads like jazz in unexpected spiritual directions.
Atonism is not, then, defeated by the instantiation of a different ‘right way,’
but rather by the obliteration of the either/or, by the rupture of planes that
occurs at the crossroads where the smooth and striated interact, compete, andpotentially explode. (Swope 12)―8―

The pattern of Reed’s narrative draws on this symbol of the crossroads to create hisnovel’s story lines, symbolic patterns and fresh sets of images, even if those images
manifest themselves only as passing voices.
Throughout MJ, Reed leaves the voices to speak for themselves. Ludwig calls this“free indirect discourse focalizing,” (Ludwig 2) a complex narratological term that is
highly postmodern, yet in Reed’s usage more mythological than deconstructive.
The structural form of this multi−narrational pattern is perhaps less relevant than its
ironic usage. Even though all levels of the diegesis are pronounced similarly, making
the meta−levels hard to disentangle (Ludwig 2), the effect of this creates a continual
sense of irony. No voice has predominance over any other. The combined effect of
his hyperbole together with the equal−leveled pronouncements of various voices
creates a heightened tension. The voices seem to erupt from inside the narratives
and create multiple points of view whose juxtaposition is ironic.
It is the juxtaposition of those voices that begins the formation of new images.
The disruption of Reed’s narrative in MJ is a kind of inversion of the typicalmystery−detective plot. The mystery remains a mystery at the end, and if anythingis deepened into a respect and appreciation of its beauty. That appreciation is not
the creation of a new image or identity, but an appreciation of the one that forms
naturally in an organic process.

Other images, other languages
Perhaps the most compelling way Reed produces new images derives from his
inclusion of African−American cultural forms into his novels. Reed “places the productsof the black creative imagination in all areas of endeavor, but particularly in music,
on a par with the best that the European imagination has accomplished” (Lindroth 8).
In MJ, Reed centers the narrative on the hoodoo religion, which derives from the
JuJu religion of Africa, on a level with the Judeo−Christian tradition. The novel’s
title is a term used disparagingly for nonsense and hoodoo itself is an opprobrium
for superstition. Reed rejuvenates those terms and uses them as a central source of
new images.
The cultural products deriving from JuJu take different forms than the lasting,concrete patterns of the Judeo−Christian tradition. In particular, music, as performance,
not composition, forms a central part of Reed’s imagery. The tradition of performed
communal music, which is not written down or transcribed transcription, infuses
Reed’s novel with an alternative language. The Judeo−Christian tradition of music
based in the written form of compositions contrasts strongly with the African tradition
based on performance. The distinction would not be important except for the―9―Ishmael Reed’s Subversively Potent Images

western European priority accorded written cultural products and the denigration ofcultural forms that remain rooted in oral tradition.
In this sense, Reed has taken a cue from deconstructionists on how hierarchies
are constructed, and why, but Reed subverts those hierarchies by re−positioning
them, though without criticizing the products of Judeo−Christian culture. Nowhere
does he say that classical music is in any way lesser than jazz, but rather he seeks
to position jazz as equal to classical, storytelling as equal to novels, and hoodoo
rituals as equal to Catholic cathedrals. In all these, the oral communal nature of theart form is re−positioned and re−evaluated.
Reed’s inclusion of non−written art forms inside a written art form has adegree of irony, but it is not that he exploits the novels heteroglossia but how hedoes it that is of interest. By focusing again and again on the details of African−
inspired music, Reed redefines the driving force of American history. He sees jazzmusicians as incarnations of gods and the work ethic as a need to jam (or improvise
music).
1920 Charlie Parker, the houngan (a word derived from n’gana gana) for whomthere was no master adept enough to award him the Asson, is born. 1920−1930.
That 1 decade which doesn’t seem so much a part of American history as thehidden After−Hours of America struggling to jam. To Get through. (MJ 16)
Here, Reed reduces the events of a decade to musical desire and individual development.
Charlie Parker brings “the word” in the form of musical improvisation and thehidden nature of America is its addiction to music. The mysterious dance infection of“Jes Grew” becomes a central concept, tied to the Ancient Egyptians, rehistoricizedas black Egyptians, and contrasted with the white America of Brooklyn Bridge
salesman and circus barkers and the British Empire’s sunset in Europe. Indeed, thenovel starts in New Orleans, the cradle of jazz, and quickly moves to New York
City, the childhood home of jazz. The only other geographical settings are Africaand Haiti.
The central place setting of New York’s Harlem is the site of Papa LaBas’
Mumbo Jumbo Kathedral, a hoodoo palace filled with rooms named after specificmusical styles, “Weary Blues” “Groove Bang” and “Jive Around.” These types of
blues and jazz rhythmic styles are equal, in Reed’s narrative argument, to that ofEuropean music. The crimes of racial oppression as well as the suppression ofhistorical accuracy come from a group called the Atonists, who have no sense ofmusic, dance or other activities that the Jes Grew phenomenon inspires. Music
becomes the dividing line in Reed’s rewriting of American cultural history.
―10―

In addition to music, Reed incorporates into the narrative another language,
one impossible to fully represent in words─dance. His descriptions of types ofdance “Eagle Rock,” “Sassy Bump” and “Mooche” (MJ 4) all point towards the stateof trance resulting from ritualistic dance. The African roots of dance as a communal
expression are essential to understand how Reed’s incorporation of this non−linguistic
element into his novel redefines how novels produce meaning in images. Unlike
the “phallogocentric” texts of western narrative, Reed wants to inserts aporias in
the form of dance as key elements of his narrative. These aporias point out the
weakness of narratives that include them unconsciously, while restructuring thelanguage of the novel in other than linguistic terms.
Similarly, one of the plot threads involves the inability to bring together adivided text that might reveal the mystery of Jes Grew. If brought together, the text
would form a coherent explanation of Jes Grew and the ancient mysteries of Egypt,
but was divided and sent in different directions, both as protection and as temporary
destruction. The connection between the dispersal of the texts and the African diaspora
resulting from slavery repeat through the novel. With this metaphor, Reed seems to
be denying hope of reconstituting the original core from which new images could
be derived, but the tension the dispersal creates remains highly productive. At least,
the ongoing confrontation between the dancers infected with Jes Grew and theattempts by the Atonists to stop the dancing offer a continuing source of dynamic
tension. Papa LaBas understands this as the beginning of a re−conceptualization
for African−Americans in the new world.
Reed challenges language as the only meaning−creating system by showingthat language cannot contain all cultural expressions. In that sense, the image ofAfrican−Americans is simply inexpressible in a language−based text like a novel.
What is left out of the text is part of Jes Grew, which is “nothing we can bring into
focus or categorize; once we call it 1 thing it forms into something else...This is a
psychic epidemic” (MJ 4).
This psychic epidemic results in confused language and hoodoo language in
MJ and in different voices and ways of speaking in JBS. The hoodoo language of
MJ is foregrounded repeated and given a radically “other” position. The many
manifestations of the language occur in slang, used extensively in the novel, andmagical language, used to placate the loas in ritual ceremonies. Reed also employs
the language of myth and of western science, juxtaposing those voices as eternally
opposed.
In JBS, the language learning text for Japanese becomes a repeated symbol of
miscommunication. The lessons Puttbutt undertakes in Japanese bring in radicallydifferent conceptions and attitudes. He understands those differences to some―11―

Ishmael Reed’s Subversively Potent Images

extent, yet Puttbutt ultimately speaks the language of power and academia. The
academic communication that flies back and forth through the story serves as satiric
counterpoint, revealing that a true African−American identity may simply not be
achievable in the language of academia. Language is more divisive than communicative,
with each of the academics staking out their position by means of key phrases andjargon.
The academic language in JBS ends up as much mumbo jumbo as the languageof musical subculture in MJ. But that mumbo jumbo has meaning for those who
speak it. Reed suggests that language ultimately fails to bring together a coherent
sense of identity, yet can still be a powerful ally in the dismantling of oppressive
stereotypes. Reed uses his satiric wit to uncover the absurd workings of language
and to give respect to its alternative manifestations.

Thematic tricksterism
This trickster figure is central to Reed’s novels, both as plot element andmetaphoric imagery. Both novels’ central figures are tricksters, one of great power,
the other of more comic persuasion. The archetype of the trickster appears in African
storytelling with tremendous frequency. One of the most notorious, and most loved,of figures, the trickster changes stories, informs the misguided, fools vast numbersof people and distorts the commonly mistaken belief towards a more realistic viewof the world. The trickster figure also plays a part in religion, incarnating into gods
and goddesses in Hoodoo religious practice and acting as a potent ally of humans
amongst the deities. Reed uses these trickster figures as central elements of his
novels.
The figure of Papa LaBas in MJ is a Haitian incarnation of Papa Legba who
derives from the African deity Legba. This trickster figure mediates between the materialand spiritual world and holds an esteemed place in the pantheon of voodoo deities.
Having lived for thousands of years, LaBas exerts force on the direction of history,
as wise man, teacher and conjurer. He holds tremendous power in his person, yetwields that power with care, intervening in events only when the time is right.
Puttbutt in JBS, as his comic name suggests, is more of a shape shifter. He isdone with family, a lone figure, you may not know entirely what he is doing, but isstill capable of changing the course of events. He is a mediator between different worlds,
but so pliable that he becomes an academic everyman. His father and grandfather act
more obviously as trickster figures, moving between the secretive world of internationalorganizations and the everyday academic world where Puttbutt lives. The maleancestors appear at key points in the narrative to change the direction of events and―12―intervene as protective deities. In JBS, Reed also inserts himself as a character. His roleis not exactly that of trickster, though authorial intrusion always has that element,but of commentator, summarizer, and father figure sent in to bring events to someresolution.
Reed suggests that African−American images are, like these deities, essentiallyunrepresentable in all their manifestations. That is, he makes the argument that without
the trickster figure, the western novel form is unable to create African−American images.
“A fundamental source of Reed’s subversive imagery is hoodoo, with its rituals,
conjure men and women, and its spirits, or loas of whom chief examples re thetrickster deities Legba, Guede and Erzulie.” (Lindroth 1). That is, the deities servea subversive function, able to undermine what happens at the surface level of thenovel, but additionally broaden the underlying shifting of symbolic forces. Without
considering that African imagery, Reed’s novels cannot be understood and his imagesof African−Americans lose their context.
Anderson goes even farther in noting, “one way to read the paradoxical way
Reed explores race in his fiction is to acknowledge its trickster nature” (Anderson
2). The trickster is not a metaphor so much as a communal signification that indicatesthe unrestrained aspects of the human psyche (Anderson 2). That is, Reed’s explorationof race, the way he creates racial images, roots itself in the trickster figure. Understanding
the trickster image explicates his symbolism and furthermore centralizes his thematics.
Race is a central issue in Reed’s novels, and the appearance of trickster figures
signals both the chaotic injustice of the current situation and the idealistic hope for
its rectification. Reed, like the tricksters, creates order through lessons embodied in
acted−out tricks. The trickster serves as a sort of deus ex machina that rights wrongs
and restores social values. For Reed, the trickster reinstates cultural values when
multiple cultures collide with unfair results.
The trickster, though, is a different kind of figure from western archetypes. The
trickster exposes the “unity of opposed forces” (Anderson 3), without necessarily
resolving those forces in one direction. Instead, a more complex dynamic results
where narrative forces remain opposed yet in balance. In contrast, the European
concept of Greek and Roman culture heroes seek clear resolution of multiple opposed
forces into a singular, coherent paradigm. This important difference becomes oneof Reed’s most important contributions to the contemporary African−American novel
and its range of images.
The trickster figure exposes the coexistence of narrative forces, disparate
images and seemingly unrelated events. In JBS, Reed uses the trickster figure to extol
multiculturalism, though ironically through the hyperbole of extreme monoculturalism.
He does this by bringing in another point of view through the character of Yamato―13―

Ishmael Reed’s Subversively Potent Images

and through his grandfather’s trickster character to the cultural debates in American
academia. The effect of this wedging in of Japanese culture at first divides andseparates the campus groups but ultimately brings them back together into a
coherent set of counterpoised approaches.
Through this strategy of splitting up to expose then bringing back together,“Reed reminds us of the inherent dangers of any agenda that neglects to avail itselfof the values of inclusiveness and pluralism” (Womack 8). The trickster figure is
one that “right wrongs” and resets the agenda through an eventual inclusive andpluralistic resolution. The trickster serves as a role model with two aspects:
subversive and destructive of existing paradigms and inclusive and reparative ofmulti−part integrations. The trickster figure wants not just to enlighten but moreoverto produce an understanding that will continue to enlighten. That is, Reed, like histrickster figures offers a set of strategies that will continue to produce new images.
His “hoodoo aesthetic” is a trickster strategy that deconstructs ideological images
and reconstructs stronger images of African−Americans.
In MJ, the trickster figure Papa LaBas operates as a trickster figure that spans
the ages. LaBas’ experience over thousands of years produces an understanding of“how things are,” and a patience to not try to enact change until the consciousnessof the world has ripened. Papa LaBas has no age, but in the 1920 s arrives inHarlem and in the 1970 s is lecturing again. He is a trickster figure that changes,
shifts. His origins and ancestry is uncertain, “Some say his ancestor is the long Ju
Ju of Arno in eastern Nigeria...another story is that he is the reincarnation of thefamed Moor of Summerland himself, the Black gypsy...” (MJ 23). His mysterious
origins remain mysterious, refusing the detective paradigm, and position him as arecurring force in the history of the African diaspora, in short, an archetypicalimage of that history.
LaBas acts as shepherd and overseer to the phenomenon of Jes Grew, which isa force that itself contains a certain trickster−like character. Jes Grew originallyarose from a loa, or not−yet−incarnated force, and spread with ironic results. As people
become infected, they dance and can no longer be contained by the strictures andimpositions of the Atonists. Jes Grew is in undying conflict with the Atonist powers.
Constantly pushing the boundaries and upsetting their systems of control, Jes Grew
is not a trickster figure so much as a trickster force. “Jes Grew’s transgression of
the clearly demarcated space of the State is met with swift and militant efforts to
reproduce a more limited space that would restrict future flows” (Swope 8). Reed’s
repoliticizing and rehistoricizing will be considered in more detail in the next
section, but it is important to note that Jes Grew has an oppositional, disruptive
nature that connects to Reed’s narrative disruption and foregrounded language, as―14―

well as his ironizing from inside.
As with his counterbalanced ending in JBS, the phenomenon of Jes Grew has
no certain resolution, but the trickster nature of its force keeps the dynamic in play,seemingly forever. “Jes Grew has no end and no beginning. It even precedes thatlittle ball that exploded 1000000000s of years ago and led to what we are now...Jes
Grew is life” (MJ 204). This ongoing nature of tricksterism as an underlying
metaphysical force contains the critical attack on western narrative and offers asource for the creation of new images. “Jes Grew, a ‘Creeping Thing,’ embodies
this ‘nomadic potential’ in its resistance to the striating logic of Western Science”(Swope 8). That is, the resistance to the logic of western logic embodied in westernnovels offers a nomadic potential for the establishment of a new type of image.
To further this “argument,” Reed goes back to the mythological origins ofstorytelling. He re−stories another trickster figure from ancient Egypt─Osiris.
Reed’s re−mythologizing of Osiris is particularly compelling as it broadens thescope of his critique of western culture by rewriting its roots. Reed presents, orrather re−presents, Osiris in an extensive retelling of the Egyptian myths of deathand resurrection. Like African culture reborn in America, and connected to the life
−force of Jes Grew, Osiris’ story contains the core of trickster values, and a new
origin for the narrative development of new images of African−Americans. This
rehistoricizing is taken up in the next section in more detail.
It is important to remember, though, that “trickster−based racial discourse is
not postmodernism in ethnic garb. Rather, it directly challenges postmodernism’s
radical relativism” (Anderson 4). Reed’s narrative method is not racially oriented
deconstruction, but moves far past that, in multiple directions, to posit an ethicalposition beyond relativism, where values can be asserted if not ascertained.

Re−historicizing and re−politicizing images
Rather than simply rest on the novel’s interior world, Reed offers a grounding
outside the novel. His images do not rely on deconstructive self−referentiality but
offer a historical and political framework for re−conceiving and re−creating imagesof African−Americans. One of the consistent foci in his works is the search for an
explanation of how racial oppression continues historically and politically.
In MJ, he looks at root causes, the history of the African diaspora and slavery
by revealing what values were repressed. He shows what a subversive tool thenovel can be in reevaluating how other narratives perform their functions. He
manages this re−historicization in an ironic and entertaining fashion, of course, but
most importantly, he does not seek to simply transfer one set of values to another,―15―

Ishmael Reed’s Subversively Potent Images

but wants to show how history continually works in the interests of the powerful,while continually working in oppressive ways against those who have less access tonarrative power.
At times, it seems, his argument in MJ is that music can never compete withhistory in taking control, that the very narrative of history necessitates oppressive
ideological struggles. “Two correlative sources of Reed’s subversive imagery, sourcestied closely to hoodoo, are jazz history, with its abundant depictions of the playful
artist, and black Egypt, an Egyptology promoting the black Osiris over the white
Nefertiti” (Lindroth 1). Jazz works in the present, while Osiris works in the past.
Though at times the Jes Grew dancing infection seems a chaotic expression ofrebellious attitudes (the novel was published at the end of the 60 s), in the end, his
provocative style uncovers the source of much of the images produced by historicaland novelistic narration. Jazz becomes a manifestation of a different historical
tradition that produces different types of images altogether.
The historical rewriting takes place in a curious chapter tucked in towards theend of the novel. In this chapter, MJ re−tells the mythic origins of Egyptian history,
using up some 30 pages of the novel to rewrite the history of the western
hemisphere. His historical mythology finds Egyptian gods advising Biblicalcharacters how to handle ravenous goddesses in the afterworld, juxtaposes charts ofbombing tonnage against a touring musical group and emphasizes an entirely different
set of events from what is typically presented in the European re−telling of Egyptian
mythology. What he combines and recombines connects to American history throughEurope and its history of cultural imperialism. What Reed reveals is the degree towhich historical patterns repeat themselves, and continue to play themselves out
again and again in America. History is seen as an endless spirals of events with
Papa LaBas as a figure who lives through it all and can comment more knowingly
about the meaning of the past and its relevance to the present.
This chapter forms Reed’s crucial rewrite of the image of African Americans.
In it, Reed digs deep into the history of the African diaspora to look for identity. He
examines how the image of African−Americans has been constructed, but at thesame time is also concerned with the location of wellsprings for identity. He takes
music as a core text in this process, rather than looking at scientific studies or slave
narratives, and in this sense, Reed is unique. He reclaims dancing as a central
feature of African and African−American culture. The novel then repositions theidentity of African Americans in terms of dance, and repositions dance as equal toother cultural expressions. Other aspects of African history, such as Hoodoo, becomere−founded, as evidence in his ironically titling his novel Mumbo Jumbo to reflect
the inaccurate appraisal that misuse of the term implies, when in fact voodoo―16―remains a serious religion. Reed’s vision is broad, and in several hundred pages hesweeps aside many of the historical inaccuracies and reinstates a different set ofimages with which to read history.
In JBS, Reed examines how the current system continues to exploit, uphold
and reinforce oppressive values through the politics of academia. In examining theworkings of one political microcosm, a university, he reveals the process whereby
an ongoing set of values and images is perpetuated and accepted. His central character,a kind of African−American everyman, adapts with increasing absurdity to each situation,
taking “enlightened self−interest” as his motto. The novel reveals the political forces,
both benign and malignant, that continue image−distortion and identity−confusion.
The novel stands as a powerful example of how historical and political systems
work, or rather fail to work for many.
In JBS, Reed cracks open the black−white racial paradigm. While somewriters such as Anderson, find Reed ultimately to reinforce this divide (Anderson7), Reed reveals how the dynamics of that paradigm work. Perhaps Anderson
misses the satire, but Reed is certainly not trying to reinforce the prevalent images
and attitudes but to interrogate them in hopes of dismantling them. By inserting athird culture, Japanese, into this divide, Reed disrupts the concept of superiority
and re−positions identities in a circle of competing cultural claims rather than in a
vertical hierarchy. First, Reed shows how the media associates Japan with prosperity,order, exclusion, empowerment and other positive attributes. Blacks, on the other
hand, are associated with poverty, chaos, inclusionary politics and a disempowered
position. Reed exposes Puttbutt early on as a black pathology merchant who knows
how to “paint the inner cities as the circles of hell in the American paradise−thesuburban and rural Americas which were, in the media’s imagination, wonderlands
with sets by Disney” in order to write his way “to the top of the best−sellers list”(JBS 10). Puttbutt’s self−serving politics become a reflection of America’s power−
serving racial politics.
Anderson’s fears that Reed “perpetuates stereotypical ideas about the Japanese”(Anderson 7) are well−taken, but Reed’s essentially ironic tone and use of satiric
exaggeration show that he is being more rhetorical and comic than serious anddefinitive in his depictions of the Japanese. His satire is directed towards the racial
politics of America, not towards the Japanese. The novel exploits Japanese as a
critical means to expose political hypocrisy and in so doing he achieves a kind ofnarrative reductio ad absurdum. The Japanese become the straw that breaks
America’s racial back. The inclusion of another culture superior to white American
culture involves an appropriation and stereotypical representation but one thatcreates an ethnic dynamic. Most importantly, though, as Anderson more to the―17―Ishmael Reed’s Subversively Potent Images

point notes, “Reed’s discourse compels readers to become conversant in the literary
and cultural production of various ethnic groups and to interrogate the ways in which
ethnic cultures converge” (Anderson 7). Surely, this is the central thrust of Reed’s
approach. His focus is more on the inter−ethnic dynamics than on the accuracy ofappropriation, on political criticism rather than on cultural sensitivity.
Most importantly, this political finagling of ironic conflicts exposes the fact that“all multiculturalisms are not created equal” (Anderson 1). More importantly thanthat, Reed seeks to understand the political clashes and the ways experience isshaped by cultures other than the dominant one. If Reed were only transferring theblack−white dynamic onto Japanese, then the Japanese would stand as a simplistic
example of ethnic supremacy. Reed wants to understand the political process as
ongoing, not simply one particular moment or situation of power relations. Thisfocus on the process would seem to absolve him of the charge of stereotyping andredirect the focus of the novels onto how images are created and by what politicalmechanisms. That Reed is aware of the perils of these explosive issues is evidenced
by his inclusion of himself as a character in the novel. He conceives of his politics
as a personal one, yet in his role as trickster, a universal one as well. For Reed, theimage of any group in the political tension of America is always one replete withirony.

Conclusion
There is something sloppy in Reed’s prose, something loose in his narratives
and something half−baked in his ideas. Reed seems to follow his instincts without
apology. However, like a folk artist rather than a polished craftsman, Reed’s novels
have a rough, go−ahead energy to them that refuses to hold back. His creativity is thatof a jazz soloist, pushing ahead without being entirely sure of where the melody mightgo, but confident of the chords supporting his direction. Critics of the novel mightwant to forgive him his narrative, prose and conceptual weaknesses by focusing
instead on the strength of his images and the richness of his imagination. So, too hedraws on creative inspiration from new sources, outlining potentially radical histories
and hard−to process novelistic imagery. In short he’s a different kind of writer, moreof a thoughtful arguer and a likeable friend than impeccable stylist.
In that, Reed suffers from many of the limitations of all satirists. In any event,Reed’s satiric effects are more the point than the occasional sloppiness in plotting orover−use of caricature. His satire is directed, in other words, and remains open. “Reed’s
especially volatile form of satire seeks to expose the ways in which institutions,particularly academic and governmental bodies, abuse their missions in order to―18―

maintain their circles of power and fulfill the personal ambitions of their leaders”(Womack 2). In that sense, Reed may just well be one of the best essayists in novel
form.
Reed is different from other multiculturalists because he shows that not all
experience and not all identity is shaped by the dominant culture. He holds out thepromise that numerous experiences, such as love relationships or education, have
intrinsic value, not pre−determined connections. Unlike other African−American
writers, his novels are filled with such experiences presented with the hope oftransformation and the promise of some secular form of salvation, if an ironic one.
Reed’s interior dynamics feel the secular, joke−loving cousin to no one more thanMartin Luther King. That may seem a stretch, but one of King’s legacies is thereformation of images in the mind of all Americans.
Like King, Reed’s re−presentation of images and identity is not pessimisticallyclosed, but opened up through a freely creative expression. The “double consciousness”
that W.E.B. DuBois posited at the turn of the century is for Reed one that offers aconstructive dynamic that spins off creative energy in all directions. He utilizes
deconstructive and disruptive means, but then goes on to examine those fragments
and broken pieces for new values and meanings. He suggests ways of re−ordering
culturally imposed images and fragmented identities. The reliance on traditional
ethnic story forms and a highly conscious sense of irony makes Reed’s images
more resonant and potent. His confrontations are productive ones and supportiveones.
One interesting point to mention about his novels, and another connection toKing, is the relative lack of violence. Reed never imposes a choking sense ofcomplete entrapment, as is the case with many multicultural writers. Instead, what
he proposes in his novels is a constant series of problems to be solved, of social
forces to be routed, of preconceptions to be disentangled. This approach may seem
anodyne to radical writers seeking to violently dismantle a system based on barely sublimatedviolence. Yet, it also allows for the establishment of a dialogue with unsympathetic pointsof view. Reed’s novels, too, can be considered open to attack from all points on the political
spectrum, as compromised by his privileged position inside academia and inside America,
yet if Reed’s novels seem conciliatory to some, but they are genuinely conciliatory andfully aware of the ironies conciliation entails. If too much compromise seems imminent,
Reed always reverts to more subversion. His satiric strategies do not destabilize hierarchies
only to collapse into relativism, but rather suggest directions ripe for further development.
His singular voice offers a sense of strategic humor and expansive irony that is profoundly
moving.

―19―

Ishmael Reed’s Subversively Potent Images

Bibliography
Anderson, Crystal S. “Racial Discourse and Black−Japanese Dynamics in Ishmael
Reed’s Japanese by Spring.” MELUS, Vol. 29, 2004.
Lindroth, James. “Images of Subversion: Ishmael Reed and the Hoodoo Trickster.”
African American Review, Vol. 30, 1996.
Ludwig, Sami. “Ishmael Reed’s Inductive Narratology of Detection.” African American
Review, Vol. 32, 1998.
Reed, Ishmael. Japanese by Spring. US: Athenaeum, 1993.
──. Mumbo Jumbo. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1972.
Swope, Richard. “Crossing Western Space, or the HooDoo Detective on the Boundary
in Ishmael Reed’s Mumbo Jumbo.” African American Review, Vol. 36, 2002.
Womack, Kenneth. “Campus Xenophobia and the Multicultural Project: Ethical
Criticism and Ishmael Reed’s ‘Japanese by Spring’.” MELUS, Vol. 26, 2001.

―20―