Fooling Invisibility - A Bakhtinian reading of Ralph Ellison's "Invisible Man"

Applying Bakhtinian theory to Ralph Ellison's "Invisible Man"

Anselm Maria Sellen

• Publisher: GRIN Verlag
• Year: 2010
• eBook ISBN: 9783640722068
• Edition: 0
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: North American Literary Collections
• Index: Literature

Master's Thesis from the year 2009 in the subject American Studies - Literature, grade: 1, 0, University of Siegen (FB 3 Amerikanistik), language: English, abstract: Chapter OneTime-space and space-time: Consequences of the Chronotope in IntroductionThere must be possible a fiction which, leaving sociology and case histories to the scientists, can arrive at the truth about the human condition, here and now, with all the bright magic ofthe fairy tale.- Ralph Ellison[…] the study of verbal art can and must overcome the divorce between an abstract "formal"approach and an equally abstract "ideological" approach. Form and content in discourse areone, once we understand that verbal discourse is a social phenomenon - social throughout itsentire range and in each and every of its factors, from the sound image to the furthest reachesof abstract meaning.- Mikhail Bakhtin_____________In the process of preparation for this MA thesis I was on the verge of abandoning the project.I was afraid Ralph Ellison's novel Invisible Man would become far too intimate for me, thesubject too tense, the motifs too disturbing, the language too intrinsic. I feared that the novelwould keep concealed and invisible the wealth I suspect between the lines. I did not, and I stilldon't like Ellison's Invisible Man. It felt uncomfortable and disturbing the first time I read itand with every additional reading the ambivalence I felt increased. I sympathize and fullyshare Ross Possnock's sentiment on Ralph Ellison's novel: "Ellison makes reading a'gymnast's struggle'" (6). Despite all efforts, reading Invisible Man remained anuncomfortable and exhausting struggle until the very end. Eventually Invisible Man providedmany experiences all adding up to some very disturbing revelations about my own"racialized" positionality. I began to scrutinize, my thought process pertaining to race, tryingto expose any possible racist notions. The challenge was and still is painful and at timescauses my mind to go blank in speechlessness. Words evaded me more than once.It was an essay by Chris Cuomo that kept the project alive. Cuomo opens her paperwith a powerful plea for help against her own whiteness."Could somebody please help me with my whiteness – that elusive form […]Whiteness is so fucking unfair, so boring, so overdetermined (Cuomo in Yancy 16)