Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man in Cultural Context

In this course, we closely read Ralph Ellison's novel Invisible Man in its historical, literary, and cultural contexts. Published in 1952, Invisible Man is one of the most influential novels of the twentieth century and a crucial contribution to the African American—and thus, the American—literary tradition. It is densely packed with references to American and European literature, traditions of African American music making and storytelling, and the political climate of the United States at the midcentury. By the end of the semester, students understand how Invisible Man engages with and departs from these contexts, gaining a deep appreciation of how novels generate meaning in the process. Along with Invisible Man, reading and listening may include other works by Ellison, James Baldwin, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Bessie Smith, Ethel Waters, Louis Armstrong, T.S. Eliot, W.E.B. Du Bois, Richard Wright, Lionel Trilling, Antonin Dvorak, Mahalia Jackson, and Zora Neale Hurston, along with a selection of contemporary scholarship on Invisible Man.