An important new collection of original essays that examine how Ellison's landmark novel, Invisible Man (1952), addresses the social, cultural, political, economic, and racial contradictions of America. Commenting on the significance of Mark Twain's writings, Ralph Ellison wrote that "a novel could be fashioned as a raft of hope, perception and entertainment that might help keep us afloat as we tried to negotiate the snags and whirlpools that mark our nation's vacillating course toward and away from the democratic ideal." Ellison believed it was the contradiction between America's "noble ideals and the actualities of our conduct" that inspired the most profound literature—"the American novel at its best."
Drawing from the fields of literature, politics, law, and history, the contributors make visible the political and ethical terms of Invisible Man, while also illuminating Ellison's understanding of democracy and art. Ellison hoped that his novel, by providing a tragicomic look at American ideals and mores, would make better citizens of his readers. The contributors also explain Ellison's distinctive views on the political tasks and responsibilities of the novelist, an especially relevant topic as contemporary writers continue to confront the American incongruity between democratic faith and practice. Ralph Ellison and the Raft of Hope uniquely demonstrates why Invisible Man stands as a premier literary meditation on American democracy.
Lucas E. Morel, the Class of 1960 Professor of Ethics and Politics at Washington and Lee University, is the author of Lincoln’s Sacred Effort: Defining Religion’s Role in American Self-Government.
Table of Contents
Contributors
IX
Acknowledgments
XI
Prologue: Recovering the Political Artistry of Invisible Man
1
Chapter 1
Affirming the Principle
22
Chapter 2
Ralph Ellison on the Tragi-Comedy of Citizenship
37
Chapter 3
Ralph Ellison's American Democratic Individualism
58
Chapter 4
Invisible Man and Juneteenth: Ralph Ellison's Literary Pursuit of Racial Justice
91
Chapter 5
Invisible Man as "a form of social power": The Evolution of Ralph Ellison's Politics
105
Chapter 6
Invisible Man as Literary Analog to Brown v. Board of Education
119
Chapter 7
Ralph Ellison and the Problem of Cultural Authority: The Lessons of Little Rock
142
Chapter 8
Ralph Ellison and the Invisibility of the Black Intellectual: Historical Reflections on Invisible Man
158
Chapter 9
The Litany of Things: Sacrament and History in Invisible Man
171
Chapter 10
Documenting Turbulence: The Dialectics of Chaos in Invisible Man
193
Epilogue: The Lingering Question of Personality and Nation in Invisible Man: "And could politics ever be an expression of love?"
