ENGL 2660 Ellison's Invisible Man

Course description

Ralph Ellison’s novel 1952 Invisible Man is one of the definitive accounts of African American life under Jim Crow. Published shortly before the Brown v. Board Supreme Court decision, which made school segregation illegal, it has remained a touchstone for thinking about race, racism, and American identity. This class focuses on a careful reading of this amazing episodic novel. We will read it in concert with some of Ellison’s essays from the period, as well as a number of his sources (DuBois, Melville, Wright, Joyce, African American folklore and early jazz). We will work to understand the political and intellectual context of the novel (Baldwin, Arendt), and finish by examining important recent work that engages with Ellison’s classic novel (Claudia Rankine’s Citizen, Spike Lee’s Bamboozled).

Previously offered classes