Ralph Ellison and the American Pursuit of Humanism by Richard
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Ralph Ellison and the American Pursuit of Humanism by Richard Errol Purcell BA, Rutgers University, 1996 MA, University of Pittsburgh, 1999 Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of Arts and Sciences in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Pittsburgh 2008 UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH Faculty of Arts and Sciences This dissertation was presented by Richard Errol Purcell It was defended on May 14th, 2008 and approved by Ronald Judy, Professor, English Marcia Landy, Professor, English Jonathan Arac, Professor, English Dennis Looney, Professor, French and Italian Dissertation Advisor: Paul Bove, Professor, English ii Copyright © by Richard Errol Purcell 2008 iii Ralph Ellison and the American Pursuit of Humanism Richard Purcell, PhD University of Pittsburgh, 2008 In the middle of a 1945 review of Bucklin Moon’s Primer for White Folks, Ralph Ellison proclaims that the time is right in the United States for a “new American humanism.” Through exhaustive research in Ralph Ellison’s Papers at the Library of Congress, I contextualize Ellison’s grand proclamation within post-World War II American debates over literary criticism, Modernism, sociological method, and finally United States political and cultural history. I see Ellison's “American humanism” as a revitalization of the Latin notion of litterae humaniores that draws heavily on Gilded Age American literature and philosophy. For Ellison, American artists and intellectuals of that period were grappling with the country’s primary quandary after the Civil War: an inability to reconcile America’s progressive vision of humanism with the legacy left by chattel slavery and anti-black racism. He saw writers like Mark Twain, Stephan Crane, Henry James, George Washington Cable and others attempting to represent a different version of the human in literature while confronting the various forces that the Civil War unleashed upon American life. As the Cold War and Civil Rights era reached their crescendo, Ellison’s attachment to the Gilded Age ossified. By the late 60s, it took the romantic form of aesthetic and political conservatism. This process is part of his participation in what Francis Saunders called the “Cultural Cold War” against communism. For many – including Ellison – this participation made their aesthetic investment in modernism commensurate with their anti-communist ideology. In foregrounding the Cold War, I want to emphasize that the US State’s intervention into the sphere of culture is a watershed moment in America’s iv conceptualization of Western humanism. The CIA and the State Department’s role in funding academic literary and cultural periodicals, art festivals, fellowships and other institutions of knowledge during the Cold War is a chapter of American intellectual life that shaped Ellison’s world as well as those of his contemporaries. Just as importantly, this moment illuminates the key roles African-American intellectuals played in America’s pursuit of humanism. v TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION:………………………………………………………………………………1 1. RALPH ELLISON’S “BATTLE ROYAL”: AN ALLEGORY OF MODERNISM’S NEGRO PROBLEM?.......................................................................................................................41 2. ELLISON AS EXILE: “TELL IT LIKE IT IS, BABY” AND THE PROBLEM OF RENAISSANCE…………………………………………………………………………89 3. ARENDT AND ELLISON SPEAK FOR THE NEGRO………………………………..134 4. AN INTEGRATIVE VERNACULAR…………………………………………………..170 CODA: ELLISON AS CAVALCANTE………………………………………………...............221 BIBLIOGRAPHY………………………………………………………………………………..227 vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I have quoted extensively from Ralph Ellison’s notes, lectures, syllabi and other materials from his archived papers. I was able to do so with the permission of the Library of Congress Division of Rare Book and Special Collections. After spending two weeks there I can attest to the generosity and patience of the librarians and staff. I owe thanks and gratitude to the following people. In one way or another all of them have been indispensable to my intellectual, professional and personal growth: To my past and present graduate student colleagues at the University of Pittsburgh: Jeff Hole, Chris Warnick, Malkiel, Dana, Manisha, Alex, Dan Kubis, Dan Wallenberg, Judy, Petra, Patrick, Lisa Coxson, Graham, Thomas and Stephanie, Carleton, Bill, Brenda, Jen Lee, Jonathan Moody, Llana, Micki and Rebecca Skloot. I would be remiss if I neglected to mention the following faculty members: Dr. Nancy Condee, Dr. Volodia Padunov, Dr. Marcus Rediker, Dr. John Beverly, Dr. Shalini Puri, Dr. Susan Andrade, Dr. William Scott, Dr. Lucy Fisher, Dr. Jane Feuer, Dr. Adam Lowenstein, Dr. Colin McCabe, Dr. Jim Seitz, Dr. Paul Kameen, Dr. Mariolina Salvatori, Dr. Steven Carr, Dr. Nancy Glazener, Dr. David Bartholomae, Dr. John Twyning, Dr. Jim Knapp, Dr. Don Bialostosky, Dr. Fiore Pugliano, Dr. Katherine Flannery, Dr. Marianne Novy, Dr. Kimberly Latta and Dr. Eric Clarke. I must thank the staff in the English Department as well as FAS: Angela Brown, Corinne Grubb, Denise Thomas, Jen Florian, Pat Rhenquist and Philippa Carter. I must especially thank Meg Havran, Sandy Russo and Connie Arelt for being so supportive for so many years. I wish vii Andrea Campbell was still here so I could tell her how important her support was through the years. You are sorely missed. I benefitted from the financial support of the Provost Development Fund, Andrew Mellon and K Leroy Irvis Pre-Doctoral Fellowship Awards. I also want to give a special shout out to Sammy’s Deli for saving the pages of my fourth and final chapter from being blown across the intersection of Penn and Main St like so much confetti. I owe my dissertation committee so much. To Marcia, who taught me to think trans-nationally. You introduced me to the work of Hannah Arendt and Antonio Gramsci. All of your lessons about cinema, philosophy and Marxism have left an indelible mark on my thinking. A book on film is on the way. To Ronald, who has given me the most valuable gift a teacher can give a student: bravery. You have proven to me that a human who acts and thinks heretically is living an ethical life. Dennis, your presence on and off the court has enriched me in many ways. Your seminar on Italian Renaissance Humanism transformed my thinking. I owe you for the direction my dissertation took after I visited the Ellison archives. To Jonathan, who was the reason I decided to come the University of Pittsburgh. You showed me so much generosity from the moment I entered graduate school. Your seminar on U.S. Culture, where we read Ellison, is written all over my work. Finally to Paul, il miglior fabbro. You showed me faith when I did not have it in myself. I hope the patience you showed me on that faithful day in your office, with the pages of my first chapter arranged on the floor, has paid off. You are the intellectual I aspire to be: honest, daring and kind. viii Kinship is not necessarily biological. It can also be willful. Enslaved Angolans during the seventeenth century would call those who survived the Middle Passage “melungo”, which means “shipmate.” Through usage melungo, or shipmate became synonymous with “countrymen”, “close friend” or “relative.” There are a few people who have accompanied me through this journey that I am honored to call my melungeon: Henry, Kirsten, Mari, Jason, Stefan, Chris, Jim, Shawn, Lee, Phillip, Amy, Betsy, Tania, Jo’ie, Corey, Melissa and Barry. To Molly: I am so glad you are in my life. Your love and insight helped me finish this arduous journey. Mavi, I love you very much. And finally to Christopher, my brother from another mother: You were here from the beginning son. We elbowed our way inside and got on. I could not have handled these hot pots of oil without you. To my family: Denese, Aunt Minnie, Aunt Essie, Aunt Lela, Aunt Martha, Aunt Mattie, Uncle Mathew, Uncle Amos, Uncle David, Uncle Steven, Aunt Bernice, Pam, Eric, Jonathan, David, William, Tasha, Kurt, Kirsten, and Lucy. And to those who have passed away: Kizzie, Richard, Chief, Marjorie, Desmond, Bill and Major. I would like to dedicate this dissertation to Kenneth David Purcell and to the memory of Mary Lou Daniel Purcell. Daddy, you are my polestar. And Mommy, although you have perished you will never pass away. ix Introduction: “an oh-so-urgently-needed new American humanism” It was on the USS Missouri that World War II finally came to an end. Her deck, once a theater of war, was the stage for World War II’s final act: the signing of the Japanese Instrument of Surrender. Waving in the brisk winds that September day were two American flags. One was a fresh set of stars and stripes from the many spare flags on board the ship. The other was the same one waving from the mast of Admiral Matthew Perry’s ship, the USS Mississippi, when it entered Tokyo Bay in 1853. Presiding over the signing in 1945 was General Douglas MacArthur. As the Supreme Commander of Allied Forces and a direct descendent of Perry’s family, MacArthur was styled as the second “opener” of Japan. On VJ Day MacArthur had this past in mind and it weighed heavily on his present. But what sort of American past did Perry represent to MacArthur? After the ceremony, MacArthur approached a microphone to address the Americans who had tuned in to listen to this event on the radio. His comments give us some insight into how MacArthur understood Perry’s role in American history: We stand in Tokyo today reminiscent of our countryman, Commodore Perry, ninety-two years ago. His purpose was to bring to Japan an era of enlightenment and progress, by lifting the veil of isolation to the friendship, trade, and commerce of the world. But alas the knowledge thereby gained of Western science was forged into an instrument of oppression and human enslavement. Freedom of expression, freedom of action, even freedom of thought was denied through appeal to superstition, and through the application of force.