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Reading Poqéakh in Nella Larsen's ABSTRACT HUMANITIES REUVEN, GENUYAH S. B.A. HUNTER COLLEGE-CUNY, 1999 M.A. CLARK ATLANTA UNIVERSITY, 2005 COMMISSION OF TWO NARRATIVES OF THE PSYCHE: READING POQÉAKH IN NELLA LARSEN’S QUICKSAND AND RALPH ELLISON’S INVISIBLE MAN Committee Chair: Kelly B. DeLong, Ph.D. Dissertation dated May 2019 This study focuses on the novels of Quicksand by Nella Larsen and Invisible Man through the fictionalized ( פֹּקֵחַ) by Ralph Ellison to explore the phenomenon of poqéakh lived experiences of their protagonists, Helga Crane and invisible man. Each novelist’s representation of poqéakh offers a portrait of the protagonists’ psyches. The narratives reveal an unsettling truth for the protagonists, who are members of a population often targeted, stigmatized, and fashioned or re-fashioned by Americans and various environs in American society, that they must assimilate—not only their bodies, but their psyches too to fit the “white man’s pattern” (Larsen 4). Their realities inform them that non- conformity and/or developing or utilizing their intellect is disadvantageous—perceiving is unfavorable. Each protagonist learns that she and he will not only be limited by their imaginations or abilities, but also by persons and constructs within American society keeping them witless and amenable. i The environs presented in forms such as schools, jobs, even people who prepare each protagonist to accept all and any disparity (inequality and inequity), they are made to be persistently and surreptitiously instructive. As such, these environs are always educating (or training), always molding the psyches of the protagonists to live within a frame—the construct (American society). These ever informing boundaries thoroughly acquaint each protagonist on “how to scale down [their] desires and dreams so that they will come within reach of possibility” (Thurman 115). Poqéakh leads Helga Crane to perceive the boundaries while it prevents the invisible man from returning to unblissful ignorance, thus, for him, providing momentary periods of lucidity. This study utilizes a qualitative research design and method, and relies on phenomenological theory to successfully analyze the novels and explicate on the representations of poqéakh. As this study will illustrate, Larsen and Ellison offer as representative via their novels two narratives of the diasporic psyche (mind), wherein their protagonists’ experiences of poqéakh lead to some unmitigated facts and disturbing truths about their reality. ii COMMISSION OF TWO NARRATIVES OF THE PSYCHE: READING POQÉAKH IN NELLA LARSEN’S QUICKSAND AND RALPH ELLISON’S INVISIBLE MAN A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF CLARK ATLANTA UNIVERSITY IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF ARTS IN HUMANITIES BY GENUYAH S. REUVEN DEPARTMENT OF HUMANITIES ATLANTA, GEORGIA MAY 2019 © 2019 GENUYAH S. REUVEN All Rights Reserved ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First and foremost, I acknowledge and give all honor, all glory, all praise to the Great Intellect, Creator and Ruler of all and Power of Yisra‘el for all that I am and all I will be, all that I have and all I will have. I offer my deepest gratitude to the many individuals who have been consummate my ,אמא supporters and/or sources of inspiration. They are my parents, especially my siblings, and extended family, my friends, and kol Bayt Yisra‘el. My deepest appreciation to my teachers, especially Dr. Karamo B. S. Barrow whose instruction inspired this topic and Dr. Napolita Hooper-Simanga who helped me keep perspective and for being a consummate support. Also, to Mr. Benjamin Armstrong, for welcoming this initiate to the professoriate and for being a superb senior mentor. To my professors and advisors, thanks for showing me what academic scholarship is: Dr. Susan P.-Wright and Dr. Stephanie Y. Evans. To my absolute A- Team committee members Dr. Kelly B. DeLong, Dr. Napolita Hooper-Simanga, and Dr. Tikenya Foster-Singletary thank you for agreeing to join my committee and your support. Dr. Daniel Black, whose words assured me and confirmed to my project is worthy, thank אֱ מּונָה שְׁ לֵמָ ה you. To Dr. Rico D. Chapman, much appreciation for reminding me to have (complete trust) that I am, truly, highly favoured. Thank you all who made earning a D.A. in Humanities from the Doctor of Arts in Humanities: An Interdisciplinary Program rewarding. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................... iii CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION FROM “ABJECT IGNORANCE” TO POQÉAKH .......... 1 Nella Marie Larsen ......................................................................................... 25 Ralph Waldo Ellison ....................................................................................... 27 Terminology and Definitions .......................................................................... 34 HER SINKING FEELING, HIS POOR SIGHT, AND ,(פקח) II. POQÉAKH THOSE NOVEL THEMES: A SURVEY OF THE LITERATURE.............. 39 “Damn you master, You ain’t my master”: Hebrew-American Literary Proprietorship and the Critics ......................................................................... 39 Altering the Pattern: Thematic Representations in Quicksand and Invisible Man ................................................................................................................. 57 PERSPECTIVES, METHODS AND DEPICTIONS IN :(פקח) III. POQÉAKH HEBREW-AMERICAN PROSE.................................................................... 89 Poqéakh and Jagged-Edged Boundaries All Around: Methods, Approaches, and Frameworks .............................................................................................. 89 Poqéakh and Historical Perspectives and Depictions in Hebrew-American Prose .............................................................................................................. 104 AND “‘THOSE BAFFLING EBONY, BRONZE, AND (פקח) IV. POQÉAKH GOLD FACES …’ CUTTING ALL TO A PATTERN” IN NELLA LARSEN’S QUICKSAND ............................................................................ 132 AND THOSE “POOR STUMBLERS, NEITHER OF (פקח) V. POQÉAKH YOU CAN SEE” IN RALPH ELLISON’S INVISIBLE MAN ..................... 173 VI. CONCLUSION RESISTANCE! WE DON’T WANT TO BE MADE OVER ............................................................................................................ 213 Hebrew Americana and the Canon ................................... 230 !(פקח) Poqéakh WORKS CITED ............................................................................................................. 233 iv CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION FROM “ABJECT IGNORANCE” TO POQÉAKH “I remember the very day that I became colored” —Zora Neale Hurston You both fail to understand what is happing to you. You cannot see or hear or smell the truth of what you see -- and you … Poor stumblers, neither of you can see the other. —the Vet, Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man The people commonly known as African Americans have published works on their lived experiences and of those of their people since the seventeenth century. Their narratives have included subjects and topics recounting their lives as captives to enslaved people, as fugitives to rebels, from liberation fighters to most-wanted, as casualties of whitewashing to champions of black-liberation theology. Their literature chronicles the fantastic, the surreal, and the truth of their lives: from the shackling of their bodies to the shackling of their minds, from the emancipation of their bodies to the emancipation of the minds—well, maybe. Among the diverse non-fictional and fictional works, some classical and others contemporary, these authors have shared narratives of folly, villainy, with ( פֹּקֵחַ) self-awareness, soul-searching, self-delusion, and open senses—poqéakh multitudes of readers. In the early- to mid-twentieth century, Nella Larsen and Ralph Ellison published novels that weave stories of the lived experiences of two diasporic individuals: Helga Crane and invisible man, fictionalized though they may be. 1 2 The novels Quicksand (1928) and Invisible Man (1952) relate the lived experiences of Helga Crane and invisible man, and of greater import, they are narratives of the psyches of their protagonists. While most studies of these novels have focused on their physical lived experiences, such as their ethnonational hardships as citizens of the Republic of the United States of America, this study aims to focus on their psychical lived experiences via poqéakh. It is one of the principal and centralizing themes, experiences, and events illustrated within these novels. This study examines representations of poqéakh, which figures prominently as an overarching theme, within these novels. Poqéakh enables the protagonists to distill a profound truth about the inherent nature of American society and their potential within it. Poqéakh is a psychical phenomenon and frames the narratives and affects the plots based on Helga Crane’s or school-boy’s (henceforth, invisible man) aspirations to explore or evade it. This study will explore how Crane and invisible man learn via poqéakh that their perceived realities are an invention designed to ensure they “stayed in their place[s]” (Ellison 16). For this study, the literary works and authors identified—Quicksand by Nella Larsen and Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison—are a sampling of the best examples of writers and novels evincing the phenomenon of poqéakh. Reading these novels phenomenologically, as reflective of the African-/Hebrew-Israelite-American
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