unpublished correspondence, the novel itself played no small role in creating. I aim to befog those lenses those befog to aim I creating. in role small no played itself novel the first, century, and situated at the hub of a veritable critical industry in the twenty- twentieth the of novels important most the of one adjudged colleges, and eral and African Americans in particular. Widely taught in both high schools gen- in Americans of interests the to antithetical is Communism that case ship (1967)—Ellison’s novel has functioned over the years as Exhibit A for the Leader BlackFailure of the of AnalysisHistorical A Intellectual:Negro the of Crisis Cruse’sHarold like histories political and (1993), Hunger) (American Boy Himes’s Chester like texts—novels American African war–era cold other with conjunc tion in read when Especially left. the about right it got Ellison that critics otherwise opposed to doctrines of literary reflection routinely assume U.S.of Even features Communism. typical replicate faithfully Brotherhood the with experiences negative man’s invisible the that premise the cepted ac part most the for have they movements, political and historical century twentieth- with aligned loosely only as novel the viewed havebiography, that warnings frequent early cold war origins. Although most critics and teachers, acting on Ellison’s Ellison’sAward—Ralph Book to its winningthat the ter National contributed patriotism—characteristics cen- vital of assertion closing and ambivalence, existential of embrace ism, national black of caricature left, the of treatment unsympathetic its With will reappear inNegro life. will reappear The Promethean instinct Invisible Man is routinely read through critical and historical lenses that Negro, c.1942 Quarterly (1947), autobiographies like Richard Wright’sRichard like autobiographies (1947), Crusade Lonely —Ralph Ellison, is neither political allegory nor auto nor allegory political neither is Man Invisible Reading Forward toInvisible Man

(1952) bears many traces of its of traces many bears (1952) Man Invisible Black The - - - - - introduction Introduction 2 and torturous, wrestling radicalism. down political ofhisformer by demonstrating that Ellison’s masterwork emerged only after a protracted, in 1982, Ellison claimed that his political outlook had always been “a product these left-led mass activities. Writing to the Wright biographer Michel of Fabre core the than rather periphery the at situated been had he that implied Civil War, hiring along and but Street, protests125th against discriminatory and Angelo Herndon defenses, support for the Loyalists during the Spanish Scottsboro the in participation youthful his acknowledged he novel the of reissue thirtieth-anniversary the to introduction his In left. the of sider” - out “true a 1971, in claimed he been, theory.”had Hepolitical Marxist . . . preface to humanity.” Negro American the of In forms the discovering formeans a as literature use to learned he before Marxism of answers facile the “found in 1963writers and politics he remarked that it was “awful” that Wright had to his own political history. In an interchange with Irving Howe about Negro novel’srelationship the regarding evasive remained but left the disparaged the historical cellar oftheearly war. cold in buried formerjustwas but antagonistsnot associates, of bile the vealing of reviews dismissive and pounded the portrait of the artist as political innocent. The handful of angry reviews accompanying Ellison’s reception of the National Book Award - com as the dominant influence on the young novelist. The flurry of second-round claiming—in a trend that Ellison would encourage over the years—T. S. Eliot of greeting the accompanying sketch biographical The Cross-Section. only a small handful of appearances in safer venues like , terly in publications Ellison’sof publishedmention madeno Breit 1952,in columnistthe Harvey fiction and reportage he had producedbefore 1946. In a however, said, was ing left-wingof approximately dozenthe pieces of three American literature at New York University and Bennington College. Noth- on World lectures War;Second his the and during marine merchant the in service his photographer;freelance a as factory,and psychologist,a fora in Ellison’s featured musicexperiencein work his earlysculpture; and studies and organizations. The dust-jacket biography oftheRandom House edition publications radical with connections earlier author’s the of traces efface In the years following the publication of Ellison’s publishers did their best, when best, their did publishers Ellison’s Negro Story, Shadow and Act Ellison claimed that he had himself “soon rejected effaced Richard Richard effaced Ellison’sManInvisible from Wright background, New Challenge , New Common Ground, or other left or left-affiliated organs, listing appearing in leftist publications, re publications,leftist in appearing Man Invisible New Masses , New 2 Invisible Man Ellison customarily Direction, first appeared, to appeared, first Man Invisible Tomorrow, New York Times profile American Writing and Saturday Review Saturday Negro Quar Negro 1 ’s - - 3 Introduction - - In- : ) that corresponds quite P 4 3 On rare occasions Ellison implied a somewhat fuller past involvement - lit white mainstream the by arms open with welcomed was Ellison While thinking, that you had to be more Russian than American and less Negro less and American than Russian more be to had you that thinking, than That’s either. how they lost the Negroes. The communists recog- responding really of interests and were to the necessi- no plurality nized caught Negroes got came, war the when and policy, foreign Soviet of ties policy. of in the shifting expedient made and were And you would be in a muck and American with a or goals ultimate mire their with of do to dead little and had which of futile much activity— They fostered the myth reality. that communism was twentieth-century Americanism, but to be a twentieth-century American meant, in their If I were to write an account of the swings and twitches of the U.S. Com - U.S. the of twitches and swings the of account an write to were I If ac revealing very a be would it forties, and thirties the during line munist have would It fiction. of terms in this do to attempt wouldn’t I but count, look to have would You reportage. science, political of terms in done be to down handed directives the at look moves, their chart positions, their up by the Communist International—whatever the overall body was called. quently quently scorned for his depoliticized existentialism, Eurocentric notion of with considerable skepticism in the black literary world, where was he fre studied leftist politics from a safe distance, close enough to have felt the heat the felt have to enough close distance, safe a from politics leftist studied been burned. as to have but not so close viewed were novel his and he decades two than more for establishment, erary Ellison’s Ellison’s claim not to know the precise name of the Communist Interna- while power, of centers leftist with acquaintance vague a only implies tional his demurral—“I wouldn’t attempt to do this in fiction”—signals that visible Man is not to be read as a historically grounded account of the Com- his munist assertion myth- and policymaking Yet he describes. pejoratively that all the same he could write a “very revealing account” - sug forties” of and the thirties the “swings during line Communist U.S. the of twitches and have to purports Ellison left. the to outsider an been hardly had he that gests in left politics. In a interview1965 through the he admitted to having “gone and thirties” the of experience intellectual the marked that madness political articulated a critique of the Communist Party (C of [his] own grappling” and the had Negroes’“emphasized rather than the was way no for There . me . to point . workers’ accept of the view. Commu- of dose large a without unite[d] Negroes and were workers that notion nist salts.” the depiction with of Brotherhood Man closely perfidy in Invisible Introduction 4 published in Ellison’s lifetime, revealed him to have a been committed (and un- stories short of number a included which Stories, Other and Home Flying of 1996 in publication left.The the to relation former his in marginality to availablelong been atYale toresearchers University’s Beinecke Library. Party—had Communist the with relationship complex and intimate men’s the public domain and his correspondence with Wright—documenting both in been had writings early his though even radicalism, political former his tary on mation from their polemics. Before Ellison’s death in 1994 critical - commen his earlier association with the left, however, they tended to omit this infor with familiar were critics American African Ellison’s of number a though Even streets. the in struggle the from detachment elitist and universality, visible Man toEllison’s isreadastestimony maturation; the novel’s- repudia and artistic limitations (or, in harsher assessments, its Stalinist essence). peal of the Communist-led cultural movement before it revealed its political asm of youth, the urgency of the Depression and wartime years, and the ap enthusi idealistic - son’s the earlyreflecting an wasone, leftistcommitment Elli- goes, story the all, at matters it narrative.that Toextentold the same on Ellison’s oeuvre, with a few notable exceptions, remains premised on the and as the vital back story to the novel. As a result most critical commentary rightown its bodyin a interest as materialof of both remainsunexamined, novel outlines, journalism, and drafts and notes to stories, short unpublished his of archive vast the because however,plete, literary establishment. Cultural Freedom and became a solid member of the cold war–era New York of publication the after and, nections con- radical his repudiated he before circles literary leftist in significance considerable of figure a was Ellison that demonstrates (2007), Biography A and political organization. Arnold Rampersad, in his definitive politics left-wing with involvementintense Ellison’sof young years several which ends with the publication of Jackson’s Lawrence States. United the in instituted be would socialism Soviet-style that hope fervent his declared man young the which in mother his to Ellison by 1937 in ten in appeared there 1999 In years. apprentice his in fiction proletarian of writer skilled) Since 1994 it has been more difficult to accept at face value Ellison’s claim - incom largely remains writer a as leftism early Ellison’s of record The Invisible Man across the spectrum was almost completely silent about some tantalizing excerpts from letters writ- letters from excerpts tantalizing some Republic New The 6 ap Elsn Te mrec o Genius of Emergence The Ellison: Ralph Invisible Man, thoroughly documents the , joined the Congress for Congress the joined Man, Invisible Invisible Man to this point Ralph Ellison: (2002), (2002), 5 In- - - 5 Introduction ------Man Invisible 7 To no small degree Ellison assisted his critics’ proclivity to read the novel novel the read to proclivity critics’ his assisted Ellison degree small no To sought sought to “[confront] the inequalities and brutalities of our society and - forth fraternity, human hope, of images its forth “thrusting still while rightly,” The individual task self-realization.” of the American novelist, Ellison con- cluded, with was the to shape-changinggrapple, as had Odysseus, god Pro from from the perspective of cold war ideology by developing in his own post– Invisible Man oeuvre a lexicon for analyzing not only American culture and . . . almost magical fluidity . .[of . Following in] America.” the tradition of nineteenth-century forebears who had been “willing to confront the broad of complexities American Negro life” view and . the “the to . gauge of . [as] democracy,” our in waned and waxed it as condition human the ologies shaping the political unconscious of much contemporary criticism and theory. thor fully codified only after its publication.Starting with his acceptance proposedthat Ellison 1953, in ceremony Award BookNational the speechat the form” “experimental of his novel, departing from the “final and unre lieved despair” of “narrow naturalism,” reflected the “rich diversity and for both teus, who America “stands and the inheritance of illusion through which all men Onlymust extracting fightby the“truth” to achieve reality.” exuber the asserted life, American of chaos” vari-implicated “mad, the from ant Ellison, can the writer complete his odyssey toward “that condition of democ term we which and love, called is which world, the in home at being society society at large but also, and perhaps especially, his own novel. The avail ability of this body of “god-terms” (Kenneth Burke’s designation of ana- indeedenabled, has authority) unquestionable possessingcategories lytical pressured, critics to examine the novel from the vantage point that the - au tive readings of its deconstructive indeterminacy to foundationalist readings foundationalist to indeterminacy deconstructive its of readings tive ide the about deal good a individualism—tells democratic celebratory its of tion of leftist authoritarianism and scientism and its embrace of democratic of embrace its and scientism and authoritarianism leftist of tion protagonist’s its just not exhibit ambivalence epistemological and pluralism but development from the ranter increasing writer, to sophistication of the as creator well. Even as text’s revisionary accounts of the cold era war have reconfigured, atleast toa degree,the historyU.S. of Communism in- rela tion to antiracist and workers’ movements, literary critics continue to read Invisible Man backward from the standpoint of an abidingly anticommunist entered invisibly having its for track to difficult more the all is that discourse the groundwater of cultural U.S. That history. this discourse is invoked in otherwise incompatible approaches to the novel—ranging from performa- Introduction 6 letters.American ated his novel as an exemplary modernist extension of the grand tradition of racy.” Melding artistic experimentalism with political pluralism, Ellison situ- I view that novel not as a well-wrought urn awaiting exegesis through the through exegesis awaiting urn well-wrought a as not novel that view I well as Ellison’s early and journalism fiction, I to read forward as novel, the for notes and outlines, drafts, multiple the of examination an upon Drawing left. the writers—and American African writers—especially American of discussion most shapes abidingly that narrative war cold the generally,more by and, 1952 after Ellison’s writings by supplied palimpsest thenovel. oeuvre, especially Ellison’s with engagement readers’ on restrictions and rules multiple ing manner, “discipline-ary” highly enforc a in functioned often has lexicon,it the informing pluralism to commitment stated the Despite novel. the ing pars critics by deployed been routinely “god-terms”has of kit tool handy this life, his over glance backward narrator’s the direct phrases and words of epilogue the with conjunction in cited Often redemption. national to means the and psyche national otherthe of repressed the both as Negro the of status peculiar the designate would conscience,” and subconsciousness “consciousness, with means by which societies achieve consensus. “Underground,” often coupled the to allude would “scapegoat,” and “sacrifice” cognates its “Ritual,”with unfreedom.” within freedom our and diversity within unity our by erated gen- possibilities “mysterious the confronting writer the of required craft slaveryof face Jimthe and Crow“technique,”in with along and, carefulthe and our hope.” would “Discipline” point to Africanboth American stoicism fate our . . . it in but conflict, of source a always and burdensome quently signify both the premise and the achievement of American democracy, “fre and enabling the writer to steer clear of the abyss of chaos. “Diversity” would nation the binding faith” of “articles the principles,”“sacred of “rock” the designate would “Democracy” fluidity. and complexity explore to enough courageous those engulf to threatening void existential the denote would society.fundamentalclasslessness the also American but of zation “Chaos” - categori logical to reality of imperviousness the only not describe would “fluidity” politics, and epistemology between connection root a Implying in politics, naturalism in writing, or sociology in the study of human beings. term, favorite would come to signify the binary opposite of his reductionism, whether “Complexity,”leftism others. added and speech Award Book Ellison subsequently expanded on a number of key terms in his National I depart from the circular practice of reading reading of practice circular the from depart I 8 , where early variants of several of these these of several of variants early where Man, Invisible 9 through the through Man Invisible Invisible Man. - - - 7 Introduction - - - - - perception Man Invisible Invisible Invisible Man as a —the Burkean perceptionpatterning —the that Burkean famously passion to Invisible Invisible Man were from the outset neatly ordered in the novel from the standpoint of the many decisions from the Man that went standpoint Invisible of the many I treat underlies the invisible man’s blundering toward insight, within individual episodes as as well in bythe arc of as the a no narrative whole—was means mapped out The politicalin advance. revelations that constituted would undergo particular reformulation. The familiar ending of ending familiar The reformulation. particular undergo would was in fact nowhere in view when, in July 1945, Ellison sat in the doorway symbols and character systems possessing substantially different ideologi- from movement the Moreover text. the informing those than inflections cal purpose through showing showing Jim Crow racists, Uncle Tom apologists, Wall Street capitalists, blood-thinking Communists all and enact- authoritarian nationalists, black ing the governing ritual of the battle royal—were largely imposed a poste riori. Indeed Ellison contemplated organizing his novel around clustered into its making rather than as the product that resulted from those deci- sions, seemingly inevitable once enclosed betweennar The novel’s covers. rator asserts that “the end is in the beginning,” and the text’s apparently seamless symbolic patterning suggests that the major rhetorical strategies deployed in antagonists— homologous character structuresThe of the text’s mind. ist’s analogy. analogy. In abandoning Marxism Ellison abandoned both a passion and a paradigm. struggle struggle with Proteus, the shape-changing god of the sea who challenges Odysseus as he seeks to find hisway home. But designated Prometheus, before titan Proteus rebellious the Ellison’s was figure mythological favored the “patron saint of the proletariat” in the discourse of the - Popular Front ist cultural left, who stole firefrom theOlympian gods to enablehumanity to conquer nature on its own. Ellison’s early writings, both published and unpublished, testify not just to his radical political beliefs, in particular his Promethean as Communist American African the of figure the to attraction political and historical of categories Marxist on reliance his to also but hero, booa as history to refers man invisible the novel published the In analysis. critical categories that presumably guided Ellison’s shaping hand, but as a re to struggle his of traces multiple bearing text contradictory and conflicted conscience. and consciousness leftist his of ghost the abolish then and press Ellison might retrospectively describe the composition of merang a alternatively, (or, gambler) and warns off his readersfrom those who claim that early historywritings view is freedoma spiral. But Ellison’s as the recognition of ask necessity, continually “What is to be and done?,” endorse the dialectical of view history illustrated by famous Engels’s spiral Introduction 8 Ellison expunged multiple characters and incidents conveying a radical, even re-rewriting and rewriting, writing, of years seven next the During man.” invisible an am “I Waitsfield,in words, the barn penned a and of Vermont, time antiracist agitation for agitation jobsantiracist time and justice into a vigorous turned postwar war the ever,and march Day May largest its saw city the 1946 In history. was reelected in 1945 with the second largest percentage of votes in the city’s of all hand of organized labor. In New York City, where Ellison would write almost postwar strikes, deferred by the wartime no-strike pledge, strengthened the of wave massive a States United the Throughoutmaking. the in was color of inhabitants world’s the of many for world” “better a changes; versible irre generated had war antifascist the that indicated globe the around all the lowering of the Iron Curtain. Postwar rebellions against colonial regimes proclaimed Churchill Winston after even strong remained Alliance Grand Timemagazine’s Man theof Year duringtwice the war, the of memories and been had Stalin Joseph widespread. fairly was causes leftist with sympathy 1945, in novel his on work began Ellison When finale. ringing novel’s the all above and whom, to readers historical the and implied the both audience: at once enabled and driven, by the paradigm shift taking place in the novel’s easily wrestleddown.to be into alignment with a far more conservative worldview. Prometheus was not testify above all to his struggle to tame his radical materials and bring them novel the of rewritings multiple “transitions”—his one—handling formal a was novel the finishing in problem main his that Murray Albert friend his to write would he Although place. their in ones new substitute to and world the understood previously had he which through categories lytical Communist views, it would take Ellison several years to relinquish the ana- mid-1943,mid-1945publications wasexpressing by and vehemently anti- and organizations Communist from himself distanced had he thoughEven left. the of critique its facilitate and contextnovel’s historical the politicize World Second War, de would thesethatmaterials replacing graduallywith national and domestic fascism, left-led union and, organizing, above all, the inter to references all text published the from effaced Ellison Depression, sociated with the Brotherhood. While retaining the atmosphere of the Great as characters of portraits the reconfiguring and supplementing, canceling, politics. pro-Communist in places The paradigm shift taking place within Ellison’s text was accompanied, accompanied, was textEllison’s within place taking shift paradigm The however,more, thanfar entailed anticommunist-ization of process This whom, the invisible man offers to speak on the lower frequencies in frequencies lower the on speak to offers man invisible the whom, for , Harlem’s Communist councilman Benjamin J. Davis Jr.Davis J. Benjamin councilman Harlem’sCommunist Man, Invisible 10 - - - - - 9 Introduction - - Red Red - Chan , nominated for an FBI The The God That Failed (1950) testified The The Origins of (1951). Totalitarianism I Was I a Was Communist for the 12 (1951) repre (1951) Movements Mass of Nature the on Thoughts Believer: True The 11 That this barrage of propaganda was directed as much toward its working- its toward much as directed was propaganda of barrage this That By 1952, there however, had come into being a substantial anticommu- Oscar as best feature-length documentary in 1951, displayed the inhumanity the displayed 1951, feature-lengthdocumentarybestin as Oscar of reds, even as husbands and lovers, and urged viewers to hand over the in their midst. subversives class listeners and viewers as toward its targeted victims went largely un- noticed. Even as thousands of reds, disproportionately immigrants and sented Communists as dogmatists fearful of doubt and ambiguity; the thesis the ambiguity; and doubt of fearful dogmatists as Communists sented that Communists shared these features with their fascist counterparts was argued by Hannah Arendt in microphone, a brandishing red-gloved hand a of icon signature its with nels, warned Americans of the omnipresence of spy Russian faces and voices in the mass media; the movie (1949) and Eric and Eric (1949) Freedom of Center: Politics The Vital The Jr.’s Schlesinger Arthur Hoffer’s sault on Paul Robeson and other antiracists at a peaceful picnic at Peekskill, Peekskill, at picnic peaceful a at antiracists other and Robeson Paul on sault the handcuffingNew York; and arrest of the W.eighty-three-year-old E. B. foreign agent”; the deportation of the National Du Bois as an “unregistered need for continuing vigilance against the enemy within, usefully coded as Jewish and Communist. Ex-Communist memoirs such as Louis Budenz’s recan- the and (1950) . U.S.A the in Conspiracy Communist The Faces: without Men tations gathered in Richard Crossman’s to the psychic self-betrayal entailed by commitment to red organizations. Maritime Maritime Union leader Ferdinand Smith; and the expulsion of Ben Davis from City New York’s Council (and his eventual imprisonment under the Smith The Act). peacetime trial and conviction of Ethel and Julius - Rosen berg for alleged wartime treason reminded the population at large of the nist readership, one able and willing to take part in cold war fictional rites of consensus. Not only had the government U.S. witch hunt of leftists en- tailed campaigna massive of repression and intimidation, including the as Waldorf-Astoria, suggesting Waldorf-Astoria, the continuing vitality of the left-led cultural radi- novels, of readers actual and potential many years postwar the In front. - left exclude to inclined readily not were 1940s, and 1930s the during calized ists from the rubric of universal humanity; couldthey not be interpellated, that is, hailed and recognized, as anti-Communist, much less anticommu- nist. movement for civilsome As late rights. twenty-eightas movement 1949 for April hundred prominent artists and intellectuals, including a delegation from the USSR, the at Peace World for Conference Scientific and Cultural the in participated 10 Introduction struggle a chimera. As David Riesman asserted, “[The] distribution of power the on attack war - post the in lives their cases some in and jobs their lostcolor, of workers documents Ellison addressed such matters as capitalism and socialism; fas these In Wright.Richard notably most friends, of range a with spondence corre and notebooks, his from meditations and fragments , Quarterly Negro at desk his at composed writings left, the of journals other and Masses New the in publishedFederalWriters the reviews for and articles duced Project, pro Ellison that work including unpublished, and published texts, tional nonfic Politics,”and “Forminga journalistic 1, examines writings.Chapter frompoint whichtheendof hisodyssey isalways already known. grapples with his developing project, rather than from a retrospective stand- he as present continuing a in viewed is Ellison process: emphasizes titles of notes and drafts the especially and stories, short criticism, literary nalism, jour early the oeuvre: the on but life the on not is here focus principal my of them unpublished; while Ellison’s experiences supply a necessary context, many texts, other primarilyon draws it text a of biographybiography. a As making of the tracking biography a towrite someone for clues enough provide would goingthrough[Ellison’s]fore neverhavetheythat would I guessed papers, “Be written, has works, Ellison’s of editions various of editor and , teenth of compiler estate, literary Ellison the of executor the Callahan, John humanity. of circle the from reds of ejection discursive this to contributed and from would no longer stand for shared human values. Harlem,of leftist people fiction the in standforcharacterslonger no would Davis Ben as Just politic. body the invading agents foreign as association, of scapegoating Communists, through now recognized, the logic of guilt by the upon premised largely was war cold the of years early the in emerging audience cultural the by experienced universalism The globe. the around such spectral survivals and identifying with their dispossessed counterparts sensus required the expulsion of those members of the tribe still embracing - con of rites [an]new of the way under time.”gotearlier boom long the As survivals spectral be to seem America, contemporary to applied theories, in America [is] . . . amorphous . . . situational and mercurial. . . . Ruling-class . The present-participle formulation of each of the chapter the of each of formulation present-participle The Man. Invisible Invisible Man pre–Invisible Ellison’s on focusing chapters three comprises I Part 13 Invisible Man.” C I O unions, social scientists were proclaiming the class the proclaiming were scientists social unions, Wrestling with the Left is—at least aspires to be—that Invisible Man both emerged 14 June ------11 Introduction ------led movement between1930s beginlate movement the -led the and - P C Invisible Invisible , Man Ellison asserted the necessity to reject red-baiting and Chapter 2, “Developing an Aesthetic,” focuses on the theory of represen- of theory the on focuses Aesthetic,” an “Developing 2, Chapter sumptions upon the readers of texts. While Ellison’s engagement with myth, myth, with engagement Ellison’s While texts. of readers the upon sumptions ritual ritual doctrines of the Cambridge School of Classical Anthropology. Pre occupied, like other radicals of his time, with the phenomenon of fascism, both Hitlerism and its Jim Crow variant, Ellison explored the connections between Marx and Freud; aware that language and ideology were - inextri cably intertwined, he examined the rhetorical theory of the leftist cultural clusters,” “associational “equations,” that posited who Burke, Kenneth critic devicesand other function to impose ideologically saturated of systems as can folklore, especially broad figuresfound hero like Promethean the of archetypes transcultural to therelation in Henry, mythic worker-hero John in the comparative folklore of Stanley Edgar Hyman and in the myth and son, a rigorous Marxist strongly influenced by the example of Wright as both as Wright of example the by influenced strongly Marxist rigorous a son, critic initially evaluated and literature creative writer, primarily in terms of the adequacy of its realism and the partisanship of its politics. Increasingly interested in the role of universals in effectingliterary communication but seeking heroes embodying class consciousness, he explored Negro Ameri- to assume the mantle of a cold Throughout warrior. this chapter I situate conflictedits and conjunctive bothits in left, the with relationship Ellison’s within a of criticalthe contradictionsphases, analysis informing the theory the practiceof and nings of the cold war. tationmaturing ideas that about guided what Ellison’s literature could and - Elli young the 1938, in review book first his with Starting do. and be should Party. As he worked out his worked attached distinctviews meanings he he As initially to Party. would that “sacrifice,” and “fluidity,” “discipline,” including concepts, various years several for Ellison “god-terms.” as inflection different very receive later adhered to Party positions on “the Negro the question,” nature of fascism, the relationship of democracy to socialism, and the changing character of the war between 1939–41 and he 1941–45. During became however, the war, subordina - Party’s the of left, the from respects some in critical, increasingly unity; national for need the to demands working-class and antiracist of tion oppor wartime its for Party the with disgust expressing was he mid-1945 by cism and antifascism; Negro nationalism, American nationalism, and pro vicof meaning democracy;the Negromigration; internationalism; letarian tory in the Second and, War; World directly or indirectly, the Communist writ- the through halfway was he when 1948, as late as same, the All tunism. ing of time some him take would it Marxism; of aspects key to adhere to continued Introduction 12 pression of an oppositional, at times revolutionary political consciousness. political revolutionary times at oppositional, an of pression revolution were slammed around” and Negro folklore was viewed as the ex and “myth,ritual, words, Americanhis Writers.of in Here, League the and the by supplied contexts in fostered originally was interest this and absorption of African American experience into Eurocentric mythology, manifestations of a retreat from politics and history, embrace of formalism, as viewed generally are action symbolic Burkean psychology,and folklore, ferent novel that Ellison might have to started written, indeed write. - dif theveryTaken indicate materialsunpublished scattered these together dialogue. or narration in out fleshed never Ellison that developments plot possible out sketching jottings and notes and text; published the in tially, substan - often revised, but retained were that segments narrative version; final the from dropped were but drafts several through went that chapters Featured in the scrutiny of these materials are fully dramatized episodes and line ofhistory.tionary withthered linking energies ofthepresent radicals revolu- of embodiment preferred his was Prometheus of figure the Indeed radicals. workersand African American of experiences the to anthropology comparative and tragedy Greek of relevance the explore to order in left the guided Ellison’s imagination in his Marxist days. He did not need to abandon patterns of initiation and rebirth, the movement through structures prominent in dramatic and motifs symbolic of number a that reveal works fictional early These novel. that to suggestively relate that novels for outlines plot and sketches character several at glance a with ends chapter The Man.Invisible publishedtext of the in does he than differently very reds assessing Ellison show protagonists Communist American African with stories of drafts tial international movement against fascism as surrounding ethical context. Par and south, linking class exploitation with racial oppression, and invoking the unabashedlymaterialis this revolutionary,of classfeaturing struggle north deal good A well. as stories short his in visible is writings analytical his in from proletarian realism to a more experimental method that is perceptible movement same day. The this to unpublished it of much fiction, early of psychological universals, andaesthetic was yet tocome. archetypalism, entailing the assimilation of literary works to transhistorical out attention to historical and ideological context, and of myth-and-symbol with- reading close formalist involving Criticism, New of hegemony The In chapters 4 and 5 I examine the portions of the novel treating the pro the treating novel the of portions the examine I 5 and 4 chapters In Part II reads forward through the drafts and plot outlines of In chapter 3, “Writing from the Left,” I examine Ellison’s substantial body Invisible Man —the figure of the sacrificial scapegoat, 15 agon to Invisible Man. — peripeteia New Masses New - - - 13 Introduction ------depicting the pro the depicting Man Invisible The next two chapters treat the sections of sections the treat chapters two next The In chapter 5, “Becoming I Proletarian,” examine Ellison’s changing rep signals that can be heard only by readers familiar with the early drafts, LeRoy LeRoy drafts, early the with familiar readers by only heard be can that signals . Man within Invisible man is the invisible murdered at sea, who has left behind a journal full of radical meditations. aside” set and “dedicated and human” “more phrases the of source the is He whose provenance the invisible man ponders in the published text. Figur tants of Mary Rambo’s Harlem boardinghouse, in particular the figure of LeRoy, a young organic intellectual and maritime union activist, recently ing as the embodimentnovel’s of the proletarian hanged god, a politicized avatar of the cross-cultural mythic hero-king described by the Cambridge as functions both benchmark in - and rela double king,” “the School, LeRoy, to which with voice a with Ellison supplies also He man. invisible the to tion theory Communist of critique left the of aspects certain obliquely, if express, - elimi LeRoy’s years; wartime the during developed had he that practice and final suppression of hisabiding own nation from the novel signals Ellison’s Marxist Relegatedaffinities. to the of cellar thetext,published sending out resentation of the invisible man’s migrant odyssey from neofeudalism to Emphasized modernity. here are various episodes, omitted from the novel, that expand upon experiences the as protagonist’s a his worker; invisibility in no small part derives from his absorption into the market for abstract labor in the Also at North. industrial work in chapters delineating the draft his migrant experiences is a pronounced antipatriotic trope that would be Of expunged, in the final draft. etiolated, not entirely although significantly greatest interest is the early text’s portrayal of the class-conscious - inhabi cropper. cropper. Notable too in these draft versions of the novel’s opening chap including ters is a more considerably daring treatment of and sexuality, sex text. published the in appears than Crow, Jim to reaction a as homosexuality anything if indeed preclude, not did Marx upon fully more drawing Ellison’s encouraged, engagement Freud. a more intense with tagonist’s tagonist’s pre-Brotherhood days. Chapter 4, “Living introduces Jim Crow,” the of section the on focuses and novel entire the for outlines early Ellison’s novel set in the South. Featured here is Ellison’s original inclusion of - ma terials relating to lynch violence and sharecropper union organizing, which significantly reconfigure the portrayal of the college, the Norton-Trueblood and encounter, the maddened vets in the Golden Featuring issues Day. re lating to class struggle and the drafts political early of economy, the south- hanged Eliot’s myth; and ritual to relating motifs emphasize also section ern man, in fact, makes a startling appearance in the figure of alynched share Introduction 14 ences ences with the multiracial organized left. The description of his halcyon days protagonist’shis hood,”Ellison’sexperiof chart - I representation changing tagonist’s relationship with the Brotherhood. In chapter 6, “Finding Brother into an epistemologically grounded critique ofMarxist scientism. critique into anepistemologically grounded tion of the historical situation facing Harlem’s workers and radicals devolves - representa class-conscious initially narrative’s the context of obliteration that faced leftists, himself included, during the wartime years. Through this choices political difficult the considering without treachery of Brotherhood fascism and the Second World War. This move enables Ellison to accuse the to references all of elimination text’s published the is here importance lar equivalent to the anticommunist doctrine of guilt by association. Of - particu formal a in symbols and rituals, antagonists, of patterning dense a ploying fascist notorious in wartime Harlem—these chapter drafts show Ellison de black a with place;Rasinvisiblehis staythe manin to warning identified is note the writes nor eye his loses neither Jack Brother dolls; Sambo lating no is there first - manipu Clifton Brotherhood—at Tod the of demonization gradual Ellison’s Displaying riot. Harlem the in culminates which public, portion of the novel depicting the period of crisis and betrayal, personal and that obviouslyism expunged had tobe from thefinaldraft. blindness by adding the metaphor of Marxism as magnifying lens, a symbol dicate that he considered complicating the text’s unifying trope of vision and perfidy, is substantially delayed. Ellison’s drafts and notes for this section in- narrative; “perception,” the protagonist’s eventual discovery of Brotherhood Brotherhood extended the and material LeRoy the both comprises section “passion”text’s the Yorkchapters, New early and college the in consisted ber and impact to reshape the novel’s overall tripartite arc. “Purpose” having num- sufficient of are Jack,Tobitt, episodes Wrestrum.of original and The of the left, which in the published novel focuses on the cartoonish characters Louise—these excised episodes dramatically recast the text’s representation the invisible man enters into a love affair with a young white woman named inmate; camp concentration former a is wise, and humble cally—Hambro, - sympatheti members Brotherhood individual some by depicting Moreover agency. historical of capable Harlemites class-conscious of range a depict appear to impervious the historical forces shaping their world, earlier drafts who characters Harlem’sfolkish of to portrayal residents its restricts novel Harlem.the Whilein popularity Depression-era Brotherhood’s the playing novel, originally encompassed several dramatized episodes and chapters dis the in treatment highlycompressed organizer, receives political which a as Chapter 7, “Recognizing Necessity,” investigates Ellison’s revisions of the - - - - 15 Introduction ------Invisible Invisible Invisible Invisible Man ? What is at stake in this project? is at stake ? What Invisible Invisible , Man the devil will be in the de (or Invisible of Man other (or any work by Ellison), ; since I am concerned primarily with Ellison’s creative process, por More crucially some comments are in order regarding the way I ap Regarding Why? number one. While Why? much number Regarding one. of this study will be devoted In chapter 8, “Beginning and I Ending,” map and analyze the process by although I hope my findings will challenge existing readings premised upon premised readings existing challenge will findings my hope I although uninterrogated assumptions about Ellison’s political outlook. This study’s relevance to the large body of oeuvre commentary on is Ellison’s thus rele proach the question that has probably by this point arisen for the reader: Why? Why? has two components. The first is,Why did Ellison relinquish literary war cold the in fixture a become and commitments leftist former his it inevitable that would establishment? he Was become an anticommunist, deter of level what at these,and were what so, If involved? choices were or - Elli constituted that values and positions specific of webs the untangling to consciousness son’s at specific moments, thequestion warrants a method- Man purpose The attention. less receive rewritten extensively not were that tions here is not a new reading of text. main the occupy not do interpretation over disputes footnotes; to gated mination did operate? they Why bother The second write to is, such a long book Man of Invisible about making the process of revision, especially of are they but bookwish, this up they wherever take to free are Readers tails. strongly urged to peruse it from beginning to end. The benefits of reading forward from earliest Ellison’s works to the published text of A few points on methodology. Since A my few focus points here on on is Ellison’s methodology. primarily are cumulative and cannot be readily encapsulated in nuggets of - informa of features all to time equal devote however, not, do I insight. or tion which Ellison reconfigured the arc of his narrative as a boomerang, enabling enabling boomerang, a as narrative his of arc the reconfigured Ellison which ticular attention to the further occlusion of elements in the prologue that would have brought in In the war. the epilogue LeRoy’s journal is pillaged for conclusions quite differentfrom those the radicalmariner would have source key a as invoked is grandfather trickster man’s invisible the reached; posi- final man’s invisible The democracy. American in faith newfound his of tioning of himself as “speaking for you” is premised upon an exclusion of eagle American the castrating at attempt whose boys,” the and Jack “Brother has placed them beyond the ethical pale: universalism is premised on anti- communism. the invisible man to declare that “the end is in the beginning.” I pay par Introduction 16 lives, the forces producing change and development occurred on multiple multiple on occurred development and change producing forces the lives, of biography this which upon causality of model the to attention directs it since response ological divert attention from these materials.hard-to-access sion that is understandable since the life alone is sufficientlycomplicated to and novel outlines or more than cursorily the drafts of neither Jackson nor Rampersad examines Ellison’s unpublished early fiction with the left. This of causality is traceable truncation in part to the fact that ties his cut presumably had he after years several for thinking and feeling drawn as a young man in the late 1930s and which continued to influence his radical movement, both cultural and more broadly political, to which he was the of impact the appreciating insufficiently by Ellison’slife in causality of domain the narrow considerably biographies both activities, his of ration from theleft to1943—comes surprise. asnogreat detachment his date biographers McCarthyism—both of arrival the before his attraction to the literary left; that he would relinquish his radicalism well in cost.passionatenever was portraits takesboth Thewho shapein Ellison was ambitious to transcend the limitations of his early life at practically any in leftist cultural circles over a few years, both biographies depict a man who BiographyEllison:A moving.profoundlyWhile is steeped in irony and pathos; for all its distance from its subject the biography barriers, as well as his defensiveness about not publishing a second novel, is Ellison’sof increasingly behind isolation conservative and elitist deepening delineation compelling Rampersad’s nationalism. American of affirmation an with capitalism to challenge his archetypes, mythic with aesthetic ian proletar his replace to readily arose, occasion the when him, enabled ness, of a self-protective emotional shell which, coupled with a streak of ruthless on this depiction of the early pressures on Ellison, stresses his development undertook he time the by and, politics leftist in fulfillment temporary seek to Ellison death of his father and the ensuing poverty of his family that drove the young mons. Jackson emphasizes the anger and insecurity resulting from the early de personal various by beset and racism American of constraints the by in hemmed once at man talented immensely an of features the ably described both have biographers two his place, and time his shaping forces historical of matrix the into inserted uniquely was Ellison where site the signifying level, individual the On moment. given any at interpenetrating all levels, Despite Despite their acute portrayal of Ellison’s psychology and scrupulous nar Invisible Man, to explore greener pastures. Rampersad, elaborating delineateEllison’s scholarlyprecision with participation is premised. In Ellison’s life, as in all in as life, Ellison’s In premised. is Man Invisible and Genius of Emergence The RalphEllison: 16 Yet it is these unpub Invisible Man, an omis Ralph ------17 Introduction - - - - - In- took Man Invisible 17 policies from 1945 onward, the pro P C members and P C Neither Jackson nor Rampersad, moreover, has much regard for the To return to the matter of levels of causality. This study is premised upon premised is study This causality. of levels of matter the to return To from from the contradictions informing his historical moment, which means, American the contradictionsinforming the convictions, particular his given is, is, of causality operating at the level of the larger historical matrix. Careful pro unpublished fiction, and journalism early published Ellison’s of scrutiny notes and for drafts above the all and outlines, fiction novel and letarian radical both of source a as politics, left his took who man a reveals Man visible joy and existential doubt, very seriously indeed. I argue that the contradic filiations as just one among his many self-advancing acts, and perhaps, when perhaps, and acts, self-advancing many his among one just as filiations char then, Rampersad, and Jackson both For wisest. the done, and said is all that movement, Communist the within insertion Ellison’s of view different a grammatic anticommunism shaping the published text of text published the shaping anticommunismgrammatic and not 1940s, late before. in the form only definitive sad simply views relinquishment of Ellison’s his Communist aesthetic as a precondition to admiring his hardly While emergence as a of writer genius. of ability Ellison’s to cut himself offfrom people who nolonger served his af- leftist his of abandonment Ellison’s views evidently Rampersad interests, overarching the amid dynamics familial early of crucible the in formed acter, fate. in a sense, is, Crow, constraints of Jim apart understood be cannot writer, a and man a both as Ellison, within tions also also opportunist) course of action. Even though Jackson peruses LeRoy’s from it eliminated Ellison recognizesthat and leftism, its journal,perceives Invisible Man only late in the day, his insistence upon Ellison’s negativism toward the Communist it onward movement hard from makes 1940 for the reader to understand why such defiant,politically indeed deviant materials beenwould have allowed to remain in the manuscript for so Ramper long. necessarily colors their representations of Ellison’s connection with literary with connection Ellison’s of representations their colors necessarily radicalism. Jackson characterizes the Communist-led literary movement in such consistently derogatory terms, and freely attributes to his biographi- cal subject such consistently hostile reactions to his leftist associates after decision Ellison’s that rose, revolutionary the off presumably was bloom the to distance himself from his early radicalism emerges as a well-advised (if project of the Depression-era and wartime cultural left; this low estimate lished lished texts which contain the clearest evidence that Ellison not only took his Marxism seriously but also continued to think like a Marxist well past 1943. These texts supply the basis for hypothesizing that, despite Ellison’s severing of his connections with leftist magazines after 1943 and his stated antipathy toward Introduction 18 described and dismissed—“dogmatic,”and described “rigid,” “Stalinist,” whatever—notor from using the terms in which Communist movements routinely are at once to relation in Why? question the history. that of outside the from off sealed be answer can To that Ellison of left between the late 1930s and late 1940s. There is, in other words, no inside the history of Ellison’s text, American Communism, and Communism, American Ellison’stext, of history the youth.his of crucible the in charactermolded This construct to study seeks a by advance in set as himself Ellison of fate the view toor,matter that for left as molded by certain invariable features of the character of Communism American wartime and to deterministic Depression-era fatethe the of view as products of a series of roads taken and not taken. It is, in a sense, far more to theirof mind—not But to choosing. Bonapartecomes BrumaireLouis of teenth in situations that were, to say the least—Marx’s famous opening of free will. All the actors involved in this narrative were making their decisions Communist movement is not based on a notion of autonomous selfhood or what is meant by “choice” in this study as regards both Ellison and the larger famously says in Jack Brother as which, in “necessity” “storm”of relentless the terminism, de mechanistic with Marxism associate to predisposed those particularly choices, both monumental and misguided, may sound odd to some readers, time. of made movement period this significant that for a propose tified To of various strategic options taken by the left movement with which he iden- made as an individual in his capacities as both man and artist in the context the of history the from, distance a at placed than rather with, interwoven closely be will composition and conception, preparation, novel’s the of account My process. compositional centrality ofstruggle—with andexternal—in internal Ellison’s both a“left” wide readership, I have retained the term to aspiring book a of title the for arcane too proved reference literary this being.human a be Whileto means it what of sense own his and vironment his grappling with the political and historical forces that shaped both his en- of dimension titanic the suggest to also but mythology classical with tion - fascina Ellison’s of origin proletarian the indicate to only not Prometheus, study this titling considering originally I moment. his with and leftistinevitable. arepurportedly movements certainresults answer the question of causality before it is asked: given the nature of leftists only because such labels falsify, but also because, in their reductiveness, they read forward, through both a historical movement and a life, is to view both I try instead to re-create the vantage point from which Ellison engaged engaged Ellison which from point vantage the re-create to instead try I Invisible Man, “individuals . . . don’t count” (291). To be sure, C it is necessary to steer away steer to necessary is it Man Invisible P -led left. I view the choices that Ellison that choices the view I left. -led wrestling in my title to indicate the Invisible Man Invisible Wrestling with Wrestling The Eigh - ’s re ’s - - 19 Introduction - - - - - 19 ; I briefly summarize those decisions here so summarize ; I briefly -led left that bear-led left particular to relevance the genesis P C 18 The The second important strategic option of the Depression-era left that In future chapters I outline and discuss in greater detail the threethe strate detail greater in discuss and outline I chapters future In a broad-based movement was, from the standpoint the of of the sectors various left, greatly in- Were collaboration. class of risk the was too so creased, the of masses the of allies now itself, apparatus state the and class, capitalist The The strategic implications of this analysis, which resulted in the Popular the While possibility against were for Fascism, far-reaching. building Front nationalist nationalist promise? Ellison’s attempts to work out the relationship be tween the proletarian and the national features of Negro experience in his often left’s the from apart understood be cannot fiction and journalism early of this issue. contradictory analysis endorse the was events subsequent of course the shape dramatically would throw throw capitalist rule and set up a society run by and for the masses of the guard force that, by virtue of their sharper awareness of capitalist - exploi tation, could lead the revolutionary movement for a Soviet America? Or were they a instead “people” of whosethe the widest “carriers democracy,” struggle for democratic rights constituted them as a metonymy of fulfilled view International Third of the Congress of the World ment by the Seventh the but crisis, capitalismin of rule class brutal the not fascismentailed that domination of society an by especially reactionary of sector finance capital. positioned to join with the rest of the working class to build a union- and would to over that becomecommunity-based movement enough powerful dispossessed. This dual thrust, while moving the Communist movement oppression, racial over class on focus near-exclusive previous its from ahead was to beWhat the relationship generated a new set of potential problems. between national and class African Americans consciousness? a Were van- to urban areas were seen to constitute part of the multiracial proletariat, Invisible Man and production of Invisible their in glimpsed be least at can Ellison by taken not and taken roads the that The larger first historical iscontext. thedecision of the American - Commu nist movement in 1928 to address what was called Negro “the byquestion” Americans African so-called that the held adopting which thesis, Belt Black com- to positioned nation,” a within “nation a constituted South rural the in fighting by Crow Jim of neofeudalism the byproduced “lag” the for pensate for self-determination and completing the “unfinished tasks” of the bour lationship lationship with American Communism in as fully dialectical a manner as possible. gic decisions by the geois democratic revolution. the At same time, African American migrants 20 Introduction Workers were enjoined to forgo strikes in order to keep war production at production war keep to order in strikes forgo to Workers enjoined were USSR. the of invasion Nazi the after “people’swar” antifascist the in unity wartime for call its was Ellison, Ralph of eyes the in just not and fortunes, that hehad during hisyouthful acquired days initsranks. plating that Ellison would turn against the left much of the political artillery - contem worth irony an PopularFrontideology,is with it common in little while his eventual codification of American patriotism would have precious And Americanism. FrontistPopular querying and embracing both himself found Ellison mid-1940s the Americanism”?to From1930s century late the without irony, Communism, Could patriotism? as “twentieth- described be populist-inflected a with coterminous now Wasdemocracy dispossessed? activist and advocate for colonial independence. W. E. B. Du Bois, rethink Bois, Du W.independence.B. colonial E. for advocate and activist Paul Robeson sacrificed a celebratedcareer tobecome a full-timecivil rights World,Third the called be soon would what to informal, and formal dors, - ambassa temporizing its Washingtonsent As violence. southern surgent re and discrimination, employment housing, segregated brutality, police the repression, increasing under came and demoralization internal from suffered it as war,even the of aftermath the In available. remained choices various warrior; cold a become would he that foreordained it was neither inequality, and alienation to antidote the as communism embrace time a for would he that foreordained been to Ellison’sevitability to migration the right after the war. Just as it had not in- no was there that noting bears writ—it holy of aura the indeed proval, the text’s with the stamp of of and politics academic history ap portraiture in Invisible Man. encoded outlook the in resulted individual, the Ellison and movement the shift him to the right. Choices made all along the way, by both Communism that it was initially the left’s failure to stay the course to the left that helped fact the obscure not should right the from left the lambaste subsequently had jumped ship and would never get back on board. The fact that he would was palpable. By the time the the agenda. Ellison’s disappointment, indeed distress at these developments toward the end of the war, on the grounds that revolution was no longer on solve itself into the Communist Political Association (C industries. wartime in discrimination end and The forces and channel demands for equality into fights to eliminate thepoll tax armed segregated the join to urged were Americans African throttle; full The third strategic decision of the Communist movement that shaped its Given, however, the canonical status of Ellison’s novel—which endows novel—which Ellison’s of status canonical however,the Given, C P reversed direction in the wake of the war he C P continued its campaigns against campaigns its continued C P went so farso dis went to as PA ) for nearly a year - - - - 21 Introduction - - 20 lish, ­lish, Invisible Invisible Man that helped to strip away 21 Invisible Invisible Man celebrates the narrator’s closing rejec , which he had helped to found some decadesfour before, P C AA N This reference to Ellison’s critical fortunes raises the second Why? posed Why? second the raises fortunes critical Ellison’s to reference This One answer to this cluster of questions is that, when read as the prod- While While it might be argued that writers were compelled to abandon their tion of Brotherhood scientism and affirmation of democratic individualism as manifestations of his hard-won wisdom, other historical actors had very 1952. of world the in wisdom hard-won constituted what of notions different Ellison did not have to take the road more which traveled becameby, even worn by there. his passing more called “the bright magic of a fairy magic bright tale”? called “the uct of the multiple rewritings that display deliberate Ellison’s refashioning into a literary text? Doesn’t this practice simply reduce literature to non- literature, removing its ability to invest reality with what Ellison himself earlier, namely, Why earlier, namely, write this book? Particularly for teachers of Eng gene the trace Why queries. interrelated several comprise may question this is matters what when detail, painstaking such in masterwork Ellison’s of sis irony? well-honed and patterning aesthetic careful its with product, final the load Why so much analysis of and history politics, especially the politics of Communism and anticommunism, onto what is, after all, an investigation filiations but refused to join the red-baiting chorus. Although much of the critical commentary on of all racial and ethnic backgrounds, quietly relinquished their former af- of mainstream With publishers. the hearings of writers and artists by the House Un-American Activities Committee in full view and the jailing of the Hollywood Ten soon to come, Langston Hughes publicly condemned - trav that from different very road a down go to Opting trials. Act Smith the eled by Ellison, a number of African American writers and - artists—includ Davis, Killens, John Marshall LorraineOliver Frank ing Louise Meriwether, Lloyd Brown, Hansberry, Alice Childress, and the cartoonist Ollie - Harring ton—aligned themselves with the left, furthering its causes and publishing in its organs. A much larger number of Communists and fellow travelers, and by indictment in 1951 for being something close to a spy; he would decide would he spy; a to close something being for 1951 in indictment by and of 1961. year decidedly in the unfashionable to join Party the Communist radicalism as the cold war heated up—and Ellison’s Random House edi - tors did indeed suggest revisions to its residual connections with revolutionary politics—not all writers and artists followed the same course as Ellison, nor did they heed the advice ing his decades-long skepticism toward Communism, chose in this difficult this in Communism,chose toward decades-long his skepticism ing period to move to the left, for which he was rewarded in 1948 by expulsion from the Introduction 22 struct. This study thus asks teachers of literature to rethink what they are they what rethink to literature of teachers asks thus study Thisstruct. into being the familiar portrait of Communism that its drafts help to - decon cially relevant in the case of a novel that has played no small role in bringing espe is it representation, fictional to relation in made often is observation defamiliarizing its relation to the reality it purports to represent. While this requires product, made artfully an is, that arti-fact, literary a son’sas novel Elli- study to fore: the to brought is words, other in mimesis, in reference opposition to alternative discourses. The relationship between ideology and stead a discourse, selectively shaped and articulated in conjunction with and anticommunism is not in some way inherent in historical actuality, but is in- tropes, and events, characters, multiple of of commissars and bootlickers. By eliminating the novel’s class-conscious class-conscious novel’s the eliminating By bootlickers. and commissars of communism consists in far more than its creation of cartoonish stereotypes - anti novel’s The being. into world” “better a bring to struggle the in love interpersonal and solidarity proletarian multiracial for possibility the body trayed a range of characters, central and marginal, black and white, who por em- he movement, revolutionary the of memories residual by motivated little of either fraternity or love. In the drafts, by contrast, where Ellison was precious conveys text published the But (452). love” of expression“an be ever might politics whether asks man invisible the 1952 Twain;in Mark of time the since fraternity” white and black of “images lacked had literature American that 1944 in wrote Harlem’sEllison class.of working part the on engagement historical radical and conscious for potential the of sense rich from lost is what sage, mes their heed might who millions the as themselves Communists much so arguably,not was, hunts witch McCarthy-era the of target ultimate the nism, that is, what is sacrificed when a leftistvision is expunged. For just as of versions early from tions substitu- and cuts manyEllison’s of examination The future. and present, of relationship the intheaesthetic. political Invisible Man as a novel. to Itof confrontthe the is embeddedness necessary of a politics of guilt by association makes it far more difficult simply to teach that the symbolistic roundedness of Ellison’s novel is the formal correlative awareness An patterning. that undergirding premises ideological the cally why,- and uncriti what reproduce with to equated is being is what query to not and terms, own its urn.on novel’sTowroughtpatterning the interpret teach they when doing Another answer to the query Why write this book? calls forconfronting calls book? this write queryWhy the Anotherto answer to the realm of historical possibility—past, possibility—past, historical of realm the to Man Invisible through Ellison’s revisions is a full and fullEllison’s througha Man Invisible is revisions as an instance of the modernist well- modernist the of instance an as Man Invisible 22 - anticommu of cost the conveys Man Invisible demonstrates that demonstrates Man Invisible - - - 23 Introduction - - - Invisible Invisible Man will in- 23 Invisible Invisible Man is a far less humane and antiracist The The final answer toWhy write this book? relates toliterary history, in fining the political and aesthetic criteriafor what constitutes greatness in a African in trends significant the as counts what as well as literature, of work American literature between the and Second the War World present. Seen in the of context its own turbulent coming-into-being, remain day this to who writers black radical many the of reconsideration vite through lenses the readjust To consensus. of rites war cold of scapegoats the which one can peer back aid at the this imagining past of may possifuture - and otherwise.bilities landscape, transforming for literary the historical of black writers have had a significant relationship with the left.Through its prominent place in the canon of both African American literature and de in role small no played has novel Ellison’s generally, literature American particular the history of African American literature. It is perhaps one of the best-kept secrets of American literary history that substantial numbers nism, and anticommunism, they are generally comfortable with categories of categories with comfortable generally are they anticommunism, and nism, intends study This humanism. of valuation a from stemming analysis literary pub its which from standpoint political the of because that, demonstrate to characters and substituting for them folkish migrants whose consciousness whose migrants folkish them for substituting and characters is confined tovernacular culture, Ellison not work deprived only Harlem’s ing class of historical agency. He also withheld from the novel’s readers— past, present, and future—those images of fraternity and activism so badly needed to help them confront the crying issues of While their many times. Commu- capitalism, discussing to accustomed not are literature of teachers lished version is composed, otherwise it might been. than novel have