ABSTRACT Title of Dissertation: THE PHENOMENOLOGY OF ...

connection between Little Black Sambo and minstrelsy, her decision to place the play in a
fantasy of the Far East challenged, or had the potential to challenge, the minstrel
stereotype by introducing the characteristics of Oriental stereotypes. In Munger’s case,
one oversimplification of culture may have been enriched by another oversimplification
of culture.
The dialect of Munger’s Sambo lapses at points in his struggle with the Jungle
beasts. This may reveal Munger’s shortcomings as a playwright. It may also reveal an
intentional reference to the cultural specificity of ostensibly “black language.” Indeed,
Sambo only deviates from the language when speaking to outsiders. Sambo waltzes to
the jungle’s edge in his finery, proclaiming: “Oh man! Is I happy? Yes Sah! I is. I’se
got me a coat, I’se got me trousers, slippers and an umbrella.” When Mr. Tiger menaces
and threatens to eat the boy, Sambo offers: “Oh, please! Mr. Tiger, don’t eat me, and I’ll
give you my bee-u-ti-ful red coat.” (129) Munger combined an exaggerated outburst of
“beautiful” with what is essentially not a dialect line, devoid of logical uses of “don’” or
“mah.” The negotiation is in dialect-free English; the description of the finery is in
exaggerated minstrelsy language. In later scenes, Sambo continues to use more racialized
language to converse with his parents or himself, and less racialized language to negotiate
with his assailants. The language implicitly suggests that “black language” is community
specific, that conversations with outsiders require translation.
Like Lano, Munger may have imagined black society as a unique civilization,
whose language, like any foreign one, must be translated for outsiders. Such artistic
choices would have challenged easy associations between Little Black Sambo and
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