Ralph Ellison and the raft of hope : a political companion to Invisible man / edited by Lucas Morel.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Morel, Lucas E., 1964-

Anne and Joseph Trachtman Memorial Book Fund.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Ellison, Ralph. Invisible man.

Ellison, Ralph.

Ellison, Ralph--Political and social views.

Politics and literature--United States--History--20th century.

Politics and literature.

Political and social views.

United States.

History.

Political fiction, American--History and criticism.

Political fiction, American.

African American men in literature.

African Americans in literature.

Physical Description:

xii, 249 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Lexington : University Press of Kentucky, [2004]

Summary:

Ralph Ellison learned from Mark Twain that "a novel could be fashioned as a raft of hope, to 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." In one of his last public speeches, Ellison challenged American writers "to take individual responsibility for the health of American democracy" in their literary endeavors. The original essays in Ralph Ellison and the Raft of Hope illuminate Ellison's work to enrich the political sensibilities and strengthen the democratic resolve of his audience. In Ellison's day, rampant social upheaval was the hallmark of a divided America, and those hoping to improve society through concerted democratic action encountered powerful opposition. Conflict and discord filled buses and churches, courtrooms and legislative halls, dinner tables and negotiating tables. Warriors on all sides took their battles into the streets, and this atmosphere permeated the text of Ellison's masterpiece, Invisible Man.

Ellison's relevance as a political novelist, essayist, and commentator did not end with the publication of Invisible Man or as the civil rights movement waned. This collection of essays demonstrates that Invisible Man deserves its place in the pantheon of great American novels and that Ellison should be regarded as an essential framer of recent American political thought. His conception of America's basic democratic project -- strangers, bound together by common citizenship, crafting a vision for America's future and forging consensus on the path toward that goal -- is especially valid in the new century as the nation struggles with divisions and contradictions unimagined during Ellison's lifetime. The essays in Ralph Ellison and the Raft of Hope probe the political lessons of the landmark novel Invisible Man, in which Ellison reflects on the sacred ideals that set the American republic into motion. He explores the contrast between modern statements of those ideals and the policies that subverted them, ceaselessly exhorting his fellow writers to bring their acute insights to these crucial questions. Drawing from literature, politics, history, and the law, the contributors demonstrate how Ralph Ellison set the tone and agenda for a politically charged era.

Contents:

Prologue: Recovering the Political Artistry of Invisible Man / Lucas E. Morel 1

Chapter 1 Affirming the Principle / James Seaton 22

Chapter 2 Ralph Ellison on the Tragi-Comedy of Citizenship / Danielle Allen 37

Chapter 3 Ralph Ellison's American Democratic Individualism / Lucas E. Morel 58

Chapter 4 Invisible Man and Juneteenth: Ralph Ellison's Literary Pursuit of Racial Justice / Thomas S. Engeman 91

Chapter 5 Invisible Man as "a form of social power": The Evolution of Ralph Ellison's Politics / William R. Nash 105

Chapter 6 Invisible Man as Literary Analog to Brown v. Board of Education / Alfred L. Brophy 119

Chapter 7 Ralph Ellison and the Problem of Cultural Authority: The Lessons of Little Rock / Kenneth W. Warren 142

Chapter 8 Ralph Ellison and the Invisibility of the Black Intellectual: Historical Reflections on Invisible Man / Charles "Pete" Banner-Haley 158

Chapter 9 The Litany of Things: Sacrament and History in Invisible Man / Marc C. Conner 171

Chapter 10 Documenting Turbulence: The Dialectics of Chaos in Invisible Man / Herman Beavers 193

Epilogue: The Lingering Question of Personality and Nation in Invisible Man: "And could politics ever be an expression of love?" / John F. Callahan 218.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 230-243) and index.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Anne and Joseph Trachtman Memorial Book Fund.

ISBN:

0813123127

OCLC:

53131247