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Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man is one of the most widely read works of African American literature. This book gives students a thorough yet concise introduction to the novel. Included are chapters on the creation of the novel, its plot, its historical and social contexts, the themes and issues it addresses, Ellison's literary style, and the critical reception of the work. Students will welcome this book as a guide to the novel and the concerns it raises.

The volume offers a detailed summary of the plot of Invisible Man as well as a discussion of its origin. It additionally considers the social, historical, and political contexts informing Ellison's work, along with the themes and issues Ellison addresses. It explores Ellison's literary art and surveys the novel's critical reception. Students will value this book for what it says about Invisible Man as well as for its illumination of enduring social concerns.

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Customer Reviews (1)

Ralph Ellison is betrayed in a way
Ralph Ellison is a mythic author. He had a tremendous influence with his essays by imposing two changes in the American mood about the Blacks. First he managed to show and prove that the black slaves were victims of slavery for sure but that they also created, from recollection and from pure creation, a culture that remained clandestine for a long time and enabled them to save their psychological sanity in front of the horrendous fate that was theirs. Second he managed to show and prove that sociologists had a completely wrong picture of the Blacks in America, a negative picture characterized by wants and needs but nothing else, hence social cases that had to be dealt with politically. Instead he developed a positive picture of a rich community with ethics and a culture that had nothing to envy from other communities. What's more he showed how this black culture from gospels to jazz, from novels to poetry, from food to quilts, was an asset for the Blacks in general but also a tremendous incentive and asset for all Americans. Without Jim, the Negro, there would not be any Huckleberry Finn, hence no American novel, or definitely not the same thing. Ralph Ellison was also the author of two novels that demonstrated how culture is able to go beyond a particular situation and to reach universal grounds, because these two novels reached universality. He showed in these novels how an oppressed and exploited community, any ianywhere in the world, builds for themselves a culture that unifies them and how they can use many motivations to get together if they feel that culture and their community are endangered, and this beyond all differences and even antagonisms. This is extremely modern. He also shows how, if this mass of gathered people do not find a clear perspective, some minorities among them will get into violence. He shows symbolically how the invisible man, the nameless hero of the first novel, Invisible Man, escapes this rampage but to get locked up in a coal cellar that he transforms into his shelter. He installs hundreds of light bulbs and this white light in this black cellar illuminates the black man he is. He is finally seeable, but unseen, still invisible but potentially visible, because, though white and black can in no way be separated and have to be taken together, you need people who want to see you to be seen. In Juneteenth, the white racist senator reveals himself to be, after having been shot by some person who disagreed with his racism, a black man who used to be, in his teens, a black preacher. No matter how hard and much a white man negates his black roots, they always catch up. Culture is the force that unifies, is the melting pot in which dreams of the future can be invented, is the showcase of any minority that proves through it they are a lot better than what the bigots on the other side may say. But Warren's book misses most of this and speaks of anarchy and chaos in the present urban black neighborhoods, whereas Ellison would have spoken of « democratic diversity » because for him the black community has no future in the present times if it does not encourage differences and build itself from and around these differences, because the unifying culture has to be sufficiently multifarious to involve and lead everyone towards a dream of a better future : and the first quality of that better future will be, and has to be right now, the integration into wider communities, with all their particularities and their differences, so in no way an assimilation, a homogenizing process. Democracy and creativity require diversity and democracy demands, and this from all communities concerned, and in our present case from the Whites who are a community like all the others, that this diversity be cultivated and encouraged. Without forgetting that all damage has to be repaired (this is called reparations). Sorry for Mr Warren, but he missed the target, and by far.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU

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Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
Despite the book's overt schism of black/white relations, it delves into history, overall, in a much deeper sense.This book is wonderfully cultivated with the history of literature and its various canons.The allusions are vast, covering the ancients up to Ellison's day (at the point of completion--late 50's).It is clear, however, that the transcendalists writers (Emerson, Thoreau, Whitman, Melville, Hawthorne), as well as Joycean stylism are deeply embedded in Ellison's brilliant techniques in the book.More importantly, Ellison's has created this book as a teaching tool of great Black Leaders, such as Booker T. Washington, Frederick Douglass, Marcus Garvey, as well as other African-American significances of past.In short, the invisible man's nameless character represents his inexistence and trampled upon character as a black man enraptured in a darwinian duel, fighting his way through his naivete against his oppressors, which happens to be blacks and whites in the big Apple--New York City.I highly recommend this book to all Americans, as it is highly placed not just in African-American literature, but literature, in general.It takes a very close reading, perhaps twice to envelope its marvelous reign among all novels.

cool book
this book was cool. it was kind of long. but cool.you should read it if you feel like it.and if you have time becasue it is knid of long.but good.you should read it. okay bye.

Review of - Invisible Man
Start with the title- Invisible Man. Not "The Invisbible Man," but Invisible Man. Even with our main character's attempts at being visible (i.e. the light company, the various soci-political orgainzations) he stillwound up invisible, miserable in some cold, dank basement.

Invisible Man vs. To Kill A Mocking Bird
During my eight grade English class, I read Invisible Man, by:Ralph Ellison.I read this while reading and studying To Kill aMocking Bird, by: Harper Lee.The point of view of the author / main character is of disappointment and mistrust of all white people.This mistrust is fueled by Ellison being mistreated and betrayed by white people throughout his entire life.I found this book both similar and different from To Kill A Mocking Bird.These two books are similar because they both give views about black a white interaction.To Kill A Mocking Bird has a more optimistic view of this interaction.It gives the impression that the relationships between blacks and whites are changing for the better, that they will eventually respect each other.In Invisible Man, the main character is bitter and mistrustful.He believes that there is no way a black and a white can live peacefully with each other.Ellis believes that a white person will always betray and mistreat a black one.He feels this way because of his various experiences with being mistreated by white men. The tone of Invisible Man is very pessimistic.Ellison writes in a way to promote the thought that there is no hope for peaceful and respectful relationships.Overall, I deeply enjoyed Invisible Man.I think that this book has very strong views.I would recommend this book to anyone interested in learning more about black and white relations in the past. ... Read more

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It has been said that Invisible Man by Ralph Waldo Emerson is the African-American literary achievement to date. Along with a collection of some of the best criticism available on his work, this text includes a brief biography of the author, structural and thematic analysis, an index of themes and ideas, and more. This series is edited by Harold Bloom, Sterling Professor of the Humanities, Yale University; Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Professor of English, New York University Graduate School. These texts are the ideal aid for all students of literature, presenting concise, easy-to-understand biographical, critical, and bibliographical information on a specific literary work. Also provided are multiple sources for book reports and term papers with a wealth of information on literary works, authors, and major characters. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Ellison: A Master of Words
I truly believe that Ellison's condensed prose is one of the best novels I have ever written.If a person says that they do not enjoy this book, it is because they are bad readers who completely missed all the motifs, foils, and statements that Ellison says with this book.This book takes a serious, easily cliched, topic and works it so well that I felt the need to read this book multiple times.And even after all that, I still feel that I need to read it more, just as to sink into every line.It is a must read, for those who read to the fullest!

damn good
oh baby it was good, i liked it so much that i bought it for my baby brother.

I didn't like this book
I found this to be one of the worst books i have ever read in my life.It is almost impossible to follow the storyline as the main characters perspective is amazingly introverted and scenes are sometime fragmentedcausing confusion.This story is nothing new and has been written sincethe invention of words a million times over, and i really have nocomprehension of why this book is considered good literature ... Read more

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These classic essays by an important independent scholar cull the novels of the Afro-American writers James Weldon Johnson, W. E. B. Du Bois, Richard Wright, and Ralph Ellison for their political meanings and provide interpretations of experience that suggest political meanings. Starting with philosopher Robin Collingwood's notion that "the historian and novelist have much in common for both attempt to define the largest lines of historical development," Kostelanetz deduces themes in the fiction that are then interpreted as intellectual history, a wholly original approach which no other scholarly work treating these books has taken. ... Read more

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I suspect that the one body of music whichexpresses the United States which expresses thiscontinent is jazz and blues. Ralph Ellison The firstbook to reassess Ralph Ellison after his death and the posthumouspublication of Juneteenth, his second novel, Jazz Country:Ralph Ellison in America explores Ellison's writings and views onAmerican culture through the lens of jazz music.

Horace Porter's groundbreaking study addresses Ellison's jazzbackground, including his essays and comments about jazz musicianssuch as Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, and Charlie Parker. Porterfurther examines the influences of Ellington and Armstrong as sourcesof the writer's personal and artistic inspiration and highlights thesignificance of Ellison's camaraderie with two African American friendsand fellow jazz fans—the writer Albert Murray and the painterRomare Bearden. Most notably, Jazz Country demonstrates howEllison appropriated jazz techniques in his two novels, InvisibleMan and Juneteenth.

Using jazz as the key metaphor, Porter refocuses old interpretationsof Ellison by placing jazz in the foreground and by emphasizing,especially as revealed in his essays, the power of Ellison's thoughtand cultural perception. The self-proclaimed custodian ofAmerican culture, Ellison offers a vision ofjazz-shaped America a world of improvisation,individualism, and infinite possibility. ... Read more

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Schor traces the development of Ralph Ellison's writings from the earliest experiments to the major accomplishment of his novel Invisible Man, the mature prose of the Hickman Stories, and the other published portions of his novel-in-progress. The study considers the two-fold obligation Ellison felt in committing himself to literature: a commitment to the craft of fiction and to the shaping of a culture. The early stories mark Ellison's "mazelike" route that developed the skill, talent, and imagination and personal vision to transform experience into art. In Schor's discussion of Ellison's work, essays and interviews are used to comment directly on the fiction, as are insights by other critics. The study concludes with a bibliography of Ellison's fiction and nonfiction and a selected secondary bibliography. ... Read more

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Our English classrooms are often only as vibrant as the literature that we teach. This book explores the writing of African American author Ralph Ellison, who offers readers and students engaging fiction and non-fiction that confront the reader and the world. Here, teachers will find an introduction to Ellison’s works and an opportunity to explore how to bring them into the classroom as a part of the reading and writing curriculum. This book attempts to confront what we teach and how we teach as instructors of literature through the vivid texts Ellison offers his readers. ... Read more

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Douglass, Ellison and Marley lived on racial frontiers. Their interactions with mixed audiences made them key figures in an interracial consciousness and culture, integrative ancestors who can be claimed by more than one group. An abolitionist who criticized black racialism; the author of Invisible Man, a landmark of modernity and black literature; a musician whose allegiance was to "God's side, who cause me to come from black and white." The lives of these three men illustrate how our notions of "race" have been constructed out of a repression of the interracial. ... Read more

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Provocative and passionate
Stephens has produced a passionate and provocative book about threeluminaries of African-American culture who have probably never been groupedtogether before---and certainly not so interestingly. Stephens, who holds aPhD in Communication, is doing something that more American Studiesscholars should emulate: he's making comparisons across politicalboundaries, and he's challenging some prevailing orthodoxies about how wethink about race in the US. Very much worth reading and arguing about. ... Read more

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In 1952, Ralph Ellison (1914-1994) published his novel Invisible Man, which transformed the dynamics of American literature. The novel won the National Book Award, extended the themes of his early short stories, and dramatized in fictional form the cultural theories expressed in his later essay collections Shadow & Act and Going to the Territory.

In Shadowing Ralph Ellison, John Wright traces Ellison's intellectual and aesthetic development and the evolution of his cultural philosophy throughout his long career. The book explores Ellison's published fiction, his criticism and correspondence, and his passionate exchanges withÂ--and impact onÂ--other literary intellectuals during the Cold War 1950s and during the culture wars of the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s.

Wright examines Ellison's body of work through the lens of Ellison's cosmopolitan philosophy of art and culture, which the writer began to construct during the late 1930s. Ellison, Wright argues, eschewed orthodoxy in both political and cultural discourse, maintaining that to achieve the highest cultural awareness and the greatest personal integrity, the individual must cultivate forms of thinking and acting that are fluid, improvisational, and vitalisticÂ--like the blues and jazz. Accordingly, Ellison elaborated throughout his body of work the innumerable ways that rigid cultural labels, categories, and conceptsÂ--from racial stereotypes and fashionable academic theories to conventional political doctrinesÂ--fail to capture the full potential of human consciousness. Instead, Ellison advocated forms of consciousness and culture akin to what the blues and jazz reveal, and he portrayed those musical traditions as the best embodiment of the evolving American spirit. ... Read more

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Before and after writing Invisible Man, novelist and essayist Ralph Ellison fought to secure a place as a black intellectual in a white-dominated society. In this sophisticated analysis of Ellison's cultural politics, Jerry Watts examines the ways in which black artists and thinkers attempt to establish creative intellectual spaces for themselves. Using Ellison as a case study, Watts makes important observations about the role of black intellectuals in America today.

Watts argues that black intellectuals have had to navigate their way through a society that both denied them the resources, status, and encouragement available to their white peers and alienated them from the rest of their ethnic group. For Ellison to pursue meaningful intellectual activities in the face of this marginalization demanded creative heroism, a new social and artistic stance that challenges cultural stereotypes.

For example, Ellison first created an artistic space for himself by associating with Communist party literary circles, which recognized the value of his writing long before the rest of society was open to his work. In addition, to avoid prescriptive white intellectual norms, Ellison developed his own ideology, which Watts terms the 'blues aesthetic.' Watts's ambitious study reveals a side of Ellison rarely acknowledged, blending careful criticism of art with a wholesale engagement with society. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Absolutely Essential
First off: I am biased: Ellison is one of my Literary Fathers.Invisible Man tremendously impacted me and my Art.These interviews are priceless because they allow us a limited, but valuable, peak behind the Mr. Ellison's Idealogical curtain; where we can clearly see many of his ideas in the their purest and most accessible form--ordinary conversation.Anyone that believes Ellison to be an important Literary figure should have this book in their personal Library.I would highly recommend picking up a used copy (I got mine here at Amazon for only $4.99). ... Read more