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Ralph Ellison and the Raft of Hope: a Political Companion to Invisible Man

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Ralph Ellison and the Raft of Hope: a Political Companion to Invisible Man University of Kentucky UKnowledge Literature in English, North America English Language and Literature 5-5-2006 Ralph Ellison and the Raft of Hope: A Political Companion to Invisible Man Lucas E. Morel Washington and Lee University Click here to let us know how access to this document benefits ou.y Thanks to the University of Kentucky Libraries and the University Press of Kentucky, this book is freely available to current faculty, students, and staff at the University of Kentucky. Find other University of Kentucky Books at uknowledge.uky.edu/upk. For more information, please contact UKnowledge at [email protected]. Recommended Citation Morel, Lucas E., "Ralph Ellison and the Raft of Hope: A Political Companion to Invisible Man" (2006). Literature in English, North America. 10. https://uknowledge.uky.edu/upk_english_language_and_literature_north_america/10 Ralph Ellison and the Raft of Hope This page intentionally left blank Ralph Ellison and the Raft of Hope A Political Companion to Invisible Man Edited by LUCAS E. MOREL TllilR UNllVERSIlY PRESS OF KENfUCK'{ Copyright © 2004 by The University Press of Kentucky Paperback edition 2006 Scholarly publisher for the Commonwealth, serving Bellarmine University, Berea College, Centre College of Kentucky, Eastern Kentucky University, The Filson Historical Society, Georgetown College, Kentucky Historical Society, Kentucky State University, Morehead State University, Murray State University, Northern Kentucky University, Transylvania University, University of Kentucky, University of Louisville, and Western Kentucky University. All rights reserved. Editorial and Sales Offices: The University Press of Kentucky 663 South Limestone Street, Lexington, Kentucky 40508-4008 www.kentuckypress.com 10 09 08 07 06 54321 The Library of Congress has cataloged the hardcover edition as follows: Morel, Lucas E., 1964- Ralph Ellison and the raft of hope : a political companion to Invisible man / Lucas Morel. p. em. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-8131-2312-7 (hardcover: alk. paper) 1. Ellison, Ralph. Invisible man. 2. Politics and literature-United States-History-20th century. 3. Political fiction,American-History and criticism. 4. Ellison, Ralph-Political and social views. 5. African American men in literature. 6. African Americans in literature. I. Title. PS3555.L625I5356 2004 813'.54-dc22 2003020611 ISBN-10: 0-8131-9162-9 ISBN-13: 978-0-8131-9162-1 This book is printed on acid-free recycled paper meeting the requirements of the American National Standard for Permanence in Paper for Printed Library Materials. §@ Manufactured in the United States ofAmerica. ~.... " .... ~ • ~ Member of the Association of 'I~ _ American University Presses To my youngest son, Ellison Charles Morel This page intentionally left blank Contents CONTRIBUTORS IX ACKNOWLEDGMENTS XI PROLOGUE Recovering the Political Artistry of Invisible Man 1 Lucas E. Morel CHAPTER 1 Affirming the Principle 22 James Seaton CHAPTER 2 Ralph Ellison on the Tragi-Comedy of Citizenship 37 Danielle Allen CHAPTER 3 Ralph Ellison's American Democratic Individualism 58 Lucas E. Morel vii viii CONTENTS CHAPTER 4 Invisible Man and Juneteenth: Ralph Ellison's Literary Pursuit if Racial Justice 91 Thomas S. Engeman CHAPTER 5 Invisible Man as "a form of social power": The Evolution if Ralph Ellison's Politics 105 William R. Nash CHAPTER 6 Invisible Man as Literary Analog to Brown v. Board of Education 119 Alfred L. Brophy CHAPTER 7 Ralph Ellison and the Problem if Cultural Authority: The Lessons if Little Rock 142 Kenneth W. Warren CHAPTER 8 Ralph Ellison and the Invisibility if the Black Intellectual: Historical Rqlections on Invisible Man 158 Charles "Pete" Banner-Haley CHAPTER 9 The Litany if Things: Sacrament and History in Invisible Man 171 Marc C. Conner CHAPTER 10 Documenting Turbulence: The Dialectics of Chaos in Invisible Man 193 Herman Beavers EPILOGUE The Lingering Question oj Personality and Nation in Invisible Man: "And could politics ever be an expression if love?" 218 John F. Callahan WORKS CITED 230 INDEX 244 Contributors Danielle Allen, Professor of Classics and Political Theory at the University of Chicago; 2001 recipient of a MacArthur fellowship; and author of The World if Prometheus: The Politics if Punishing in Democratic Athens (Princeton University Press, 2000) and Talking to Strangers: On Little Rock and Political Friendship (University of Chicago, 2004). Charles "Pete" Banner-Haley, Associate Professor of History and the for­ mer Director of the Africana-Latin American Studies Program at Colgate University and author of The Fruits if Integration: Black Middle Class Ideology and Culture, 196(}-1990 (University Press of Mississippi, 1994). Herman Beavers, Associate Professor of English at the University of Penn­ sylvania; poet; and author of Wrestling Angels into Song: The Fictions if Ernest J Gaines and James Alan McPherson (University of Pennsylvania Press, 1995). Alfred L. Brophy, Professor of Law at the University of Alabama School of Law; author of Reconstructing the Dreamland: The Tulsa Riot of 1921-Race, Reparations, and Reconciliation (Oxford University Press, 2002); and editor of the Oklahoma City University Law Review symposium issue on "Ralph Ellison and the Law." ix x CONTRIBUTORS John F. Callahan, Morgan S. Odell Professor of Humanities at Lewis and Clark College, author of In the African-American Grain: Call-and-Response in 20th Century Black Fiction (University of Illinois Press, 1988; reprint, 2001); editor of Juneteenth and The Collected Essays of Ralph Ellison; and literary executor of Ralph Ellison's estate. Marc C. Conner, Associate Professor of English at Washington and Lee Uni­ versity and editor of The Aesthetics of Toni Morrison: Speaking the Unspeakable (University Press of Mississippi, 2000). Thomas S. Engeman, Associate Professor of Political Science at Loyola University Chicago; editor of Thomas Jefferson and the Politics of Nature (Uni­ versity of Notre Dame Press, 2000); author, with Raymond Tatalovich, of The Presidency and Political Science: Two Hundred Years of Constitutional Debate (The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2003); and editor, with Michael Zuckert, of Protestantism and the American Founding (University of Notre Dame Press, forthcoming) . Lucas E. Morel, Associate Professor of Politics at Washington and Lee Uni­ versity and author of Lincoln's Sacred Effort: Defining Religion's Role in American Self-Government (Lexington Books, 2000). William R. Nash, Associate Professor of American Literature and Civiliza­ tion and Director of Mrican-American Studies at Middlebury College and author of Charles Johnson's Fiction (University of Illinois Press, 2002). James Seaton, Professor of English at Michigan State University and author of Cultural Conservatism, Political Liberalism: From Criticism to Cultural Studies (University of Michigan Press, 1996). Kenneth W. Warren, Associate Professor of English and the Associate Direc­ tor of the Center for the Study of Race, Politics, and Culture at the Univer­ sity of Chicago; author of So Black and Blue: Ralph Ellison and the Occasion of Criticism (University of Chicago Press, 2003) and Black and White Strangers: Race and American Literary Realism (University of Chicago Press, 1993). Acknowledgments This volume of scholarly reflections on Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man owes a great deal to my home institution, Washington and Lee University. Special thanks go to Larry Peppers, professor of Economics and dean of the Williams School of Commerce, Economics, and Politics, and Robert Strong, the William Lyne Wilson professor and chair of the Politics Department. Their support of this book stretches back to February 2002, when Washington and Lee University hosted a symposium to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the publication of Ellison's landmark novel. Most of the essays in this collec­ tion took first flight at this symposium. Scholars from a variety of disciplines gathered to take a closer look at the political lessons and aspirations of Invisible Man than had been exhibited to date. To my colleague in the English Department, Marc Conner, my heartfelt thanks for helping this student of politics negotiate the challenging terrain of the American novel and African-American studies. For assistance with the Ralph Ellison Papers at the Library of Congress, I thank Alice Birney and the literary executor of Ralph Ellison's estate, my friend John Callahan. I am also grateful to Mrs. Fanny Ellison for permission to use quotations from Ralph Ellison's published and unpublished works, and am much obliged to Nancy Kaye, whose wonderful 1982 photograph of Ralph Ellison graces the cover of this book. xi xii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Steve Wrinn, director of the University Press of Kentucky, is a gem of a man who believed in this book as soon as he heard the idea. Thanks also to Angelique Cain Galskis and Gena Henry, editors at UPK, and Mary Grivetti, production editor at Shepherd, Inc., for guiding this collection through vari­ ous phases of its production. As ever, I thank my wife, Cherie, and children, Luke, Hannah, and Ellison, for their abiding love and support. The blessing of a devoted and affectionate family is beyond measure. The novel at its best demands a sort ifcomplexity ifvision which politics doesn't like. -RALPH ELLISON This page intentionally left blank Prologue Recovering the Political Artistry of Invisible Man LUCAS E. MOREL But what kind of society will make him see me, I thought. -INVISIBLE MAN braham Lincoln once said that government
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