"To Ask Again": Folklore, "Mumbo Jumbo," and the Question of Ethnographic Metafictions.

MUMBO Jumbo (Book : Reed); REED, Ishmael, 1938-; LITERATURE & folklore; ETHNOLOGY & literature; RACIALIZATION; FICTION writing techniques

A literary criticism of the novel "Mumbo Jumbo" by Ishmael Reed with focus given to its focus on folklore is presented. The author begins by explaining the impact of ethnography in the 1970s and '80s on the study of folklore and literature, and goes on to examine the way in which the metafictional aspects of the novel undermine this sort of "new" ethnography and its racializing and colonialist tendencies. Focus is also given to a lack of analyses of "Mumbo Jumbo" within ethnographic fiction studies.