New Books In Literary Studies

Ralph Waldo Ellison's masterpiece Invisible Man tells the story of an African-American man who insists on his visibility, agency, and humanity in a country dead-set on not seeing him. Barring him from most opportunities, and denying his humanity. The book charts this young man's course from the segregated South into 1950's New York where the choices seem to be; militant resistance or assimilation, war or acceptance on an unacceptable status quo. The book deals with racism and inequality in ways that remain wholly timely, but its continued relevance rests possibly most on the narrator's unflinching introspection and self-interrogation. What does it mean to be a man? What does it mean to be black? What does it mean to be human? What is an American? By interlocking these questions Ellison writes a book as tightly constructed as a great jazz performance, where many voices and perspectives compete for priority but ultimately must find a way to gel. Ellison's gripping novel is as timely today as when first publishe