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

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 One

Time-space and space-time: Consequences of the Chronotope in

Introduction

There 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 of

the 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 are

one, once we understand that verbal discourse is a social phenomenon - social throughout its

entire range and in each and every of its factors, from the sound image to the furthest reaches

of abstract meaning.

- Mikhail Bakhtin

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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, the

subject too tense, the motifs too disturbing, the language too intrinsic. I feared that the novel

would keep concealed and invisible the wealth I suspect between the lines. I did not, and I still

don¿t like Ellison¿s Invisible Man. It felt uncomfortable and disturbing the first time I read it

and with every additional reading the ambivalence I felt increased. I sympathize and fully

share Ross Possnock¿s sentiment on Ralph Ellison¿s novel: ¿Ellison makes reading a

¿gymnast¿s struggle¿¿ (6). Despite all efforts, reading Invisible Man remained an

uncomfortable and exhausting struggle until the very end. Eventually Invisible Man provided

many experiences all adding up to some very disturbing revelations about my own

¿racialized¿ positionality. I began to scrutinize, my thought process pertaining to race, trying

to expose any possible racist notions. The challenge was and still is painful and at times

causes 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 paper

with 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)