The invisible man

CHAPTER II. RALPH ELLISON AND THE POSTCOLONIAL IDENTITY OF BLACK INVISIBILITY
2.1. The Literary Conventions at Play in Invisible Man
No art is produced in a vacuum. Therefore, what inspired the style of Invisible Man-its genre, mood and aesthetic feel? Why did Ellison choose to write a novel? The answer to this question lies in analysis of the beginning of Ellison’s writing career, and of his deep fascination with 18th and 19th century poets and authors.
The power of the novel became apparent to Ellison as he began to develop as a writer. His inspiration for literary conventions came from a respect for the most prominent authors and poets in Western culture. Ellison states that, “I became interested in writing through incessant reading,” and that T. S Eliot’s The Waste Land, “moved and intrigued me… and I wondered why I had never read anything of equal intensity and sensibility by an American Negro writer” (Chester & Howard, 1955). Professor Alan Nadel of the University of Kentucky notes that, “Ellison was profoundly concerned with the literary canon and with his relation to it” (as cited in Tracy, 2004, p. 143).
As Ellison began to expand his writing career in Harlem, he recognized that in order to participate in the literary canon of highly esteemed authors, he must adopt the literary conventions of such authors that preceded him. Ellison achieved this through his study of Joseph Conrad, James Joyce, Dostoevsky, Henry James, Twain, Eliot, Gertrude Stein, Hemingway, Dickens, Emerson, Thoreau, Whitman and Malraux; and interestingly, he is noted for his interest in Sigmund Freud and Karl Marx (Tracy, 2004; Bishop, 1988; Chester & Howard, 1955).
Ellison is stunningly well read, and his passion for literature of this stature demonstrates his sincere devotion to the art, and his recognition of the genius of the novel as a platform for interacting with the mindset of a culture. Because of Ellison’s skill and knowledge with literature, he invokes the same strengths of those picaresque novelists. As a result Invisible Man has also risen in a similar measure to achieve a place in the collection of great literary achievements in Western culture⁷.
Ellison’s motivation for adopting the conventions of the Western literary canon is twofold. On a cultural level, it is his desire to produce a novel capable of uplifting the black American body of literature to align more closely with those picaresque novelists. He believes this is an inherent responsibility as an author of black American descent. Coincidentally, he desires to write a novel that transcends his identity as a black American, and he believes that his heritage informs, not weakens, his ability as an author. Ellison downplays the effect that being part of a minority culture has on his writing when he states that, “All novels are about certain minorities: the individual is a minority” (Chester & Howard, 1955).
This perspective is part of what allows Ellison to achieve universality in the life of his protagonist; he makes the case that all individuals are minorities, and therefore we all must share aspects of our identities regardless of our cultural background. He states further that, “The universal in the novel… is reached only through the depiction of the specific man in a specific circumstance” (Chester & Howard, 1955). This statement really targets the heart of the power behind the ability for Invisible Man to reach the audience that it does. Many readers are able to identify with Ellison’s protagonist because of the inherent draw upon the reader to identify with the protagonist’s specific experiences.
Ellison further makes the case for the magnetic appeal to identify with his narrator when he explains that despite Mainstream America’s reluctance to identify with black Americans in literature, “on the deeper human level identification can become compelling when the situation is revealed artistically” (Chester & Howard, 1955). Again, it is Ellison’s adherence to the strengths of the literary canon, the conventions of the novel, that allow him to portray the black American plight in a way that causes his audience to identify and relate to it in a way that they never had before imagined.
Is Ellison successful in his attempt to produce a novel comparable to aforementioned literary greats? Yes, Ellison’s efforts in this are fruitful and accomplished. Nadel writes that, “Invisible Man, is a novel employing richly allusive modernist techniques that refer to major works of the American canon”; Jarrett writes that, “Invisible Man, then, represents a new kind of emphasis in fiction that relates to Negro life, an attempt to find a proper medium rather than to imitate or strike out”; Locke states that, “ Ellison’s philosophy of characterization, incisive, realistic, unsparing of physical and psychological detail… is close to the best European realism.” (as cited in Tracy, 2004; Jarrett, 1954, p. 422; Locke, 1953, p. 35). The opinions of these highly regarded critics reveal the literary accomplishment of Ellison’s Invisible Man, and of his success with the use of the literary conventions that preceded him. They also point to another aspect of the context surrounding Invisible Man, that of the interaction between black American artists and their audience.