Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man

Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man is one of the most widely read works of African American literature. Included are chapters on the creation of the novel, its plot, its historical and social contexts, the themes and issues it addresses, Ellison's literary style, and the critical reception of the work. Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man is one of the most widely read works of African American literature. This book gives students a thorough yet concise introduction to the novel. Included are chapters on the creation of the novel, its plot, its historical and social contexts, the themes and issues it addresses, Ellison's literary style, and the critical reception of the work. Students will welcome this book as a guide to the novel and the concerns it raises. The volume offers a detailed summary of the plot of Invisible Man as well as a discussion of its origin. It additionally considers the social, historical, and political contexts informing Ellison's work, along with the themes and issues Ellison addresses. It explores Ellison's literary art and surveys the novel's critical reception. Students will value this book for what it says about Invisible Man as well as for its illumination of enduring social concerns.

Offering students and scholars a variety of interpretations from which to fashion their own views of the novel and the man who created it, this text takes the position that there can be no last word on "Invisible Man". The essays share a respect for the novel's fluidity and for every reader's encounter with its narrator, story, and meanings. Ralph Ellisons' Invisible Man: A Casebook offers students and scholars a rich variety of interpretations from which to fashion their own views of the novels and the man who created it. Both Ellison's comments, a number of which appear in print here for the first time, and those of ten distignuished scholars of American and African-American literature take the position that there can be no last word on Invisible Man. Different as they are, the essays share a respect for the novel's fluidity and for every reader's encounter with its narrator, story, and meanings.