Unit 14 BECOMING VISIBLE Ethnic Writers and the Literary Mainstream, 1945–1969 Authors and Works I Several of these writers experienced moral, political, or psychological crises during the course Featured in the Video: of their lives and in the process became disillu- Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man (novel), “Cadillac sioned with radical agendas and mass movements. Flambé” (short story) How do these crises show in their work, and what Philip Roth, Portnoy’s Complaint (novel), “Defender similarities do you see between their experience of the Faith” (short story) with political movements and that of authors from N. Scott Momaday, The Way to Rainy Mountain, earlier periods in American literature? House Made of Dawn (novels) I What experimental styles and strategies be- come apparent in the literary works featured in this Discussed in This Unit: unit? Bernard Malamud, “The Magic Barrel” (short story) I Much of the literature in this unit responds Saul Bellow, “Looking for Mr. Green” (short story) to an age in which the pressures of conformity Arthur Miller, Death of a Salesman (play) and assimilation led to a climate of political pro- Gwendolyn Brooks, “The White Troops Had Their test. What resemblances and differences do you Orders But the Negroes Looked Like Men,” “We see between the moral issues that these writers Real Cool,” “A Bronzeville Mother Loiters in address and those confronted by earlier American Mississippi. Meanwhile a Mississippi Mother writers? Burns Bacon,” “The Last Quatrain of the Ballad I What relationship is conveyed between each of Emmett Till” (poems) writer and his or her own communities—both the Grace Paley, “A Conversation with My Father” ethnic or racial community in which he or she grew (short story) up, and the larger society encountered as an adult? James Baldwin, “Going to Meet the Man” (short How might the complexity of this relationship give story) each text and writer a special importance? Paule Marshall, “Reena” (short story) I The suburbs expanded in the 1950s and after, rivaling cities and rural settings as places for Americans to live. How do some writers from this unit represent the suburban experience? Overview Questions I Almost all of the works included in this unit focus on the problems and challenges of forging I How did this diverse array of minority and eth- identity. How do they achieve a measure of rele- nic voices enrich an American literary tradition that vance for a broad range of American readers? once was defined almost exclusively by white men? I What modern American aspirations, myths, I What relationship can we see between innova- and fears are present in the work of these writers, tions in twentieth-century popular culture, espe- and how does each writer address them? cially jazz and rock and roll, and experimentation in I What myths about American family life were literary style? reinforced in the popular culture of the 1950s and I How do the writers in this unit greatly expand 1960s? How have those myths been challenged in the conventional definitions of what it means to be literary works, and how have those myths endured an American? or evolved today? 2 UNIT 14, BECOMING VISIBLE Learning Objectives highways, the dynamics of ordinary life were radi- cally reinvented. Women who had worked in the After students have viewed the video, read the head- defense industries and who remembered the scar- notes and literary selections in The Norton Anthol- city and hardship of the 1930s and 1940s now faced ogy of American Literature, and explored related the heady challenges of prosperity and conflicting archival materials on the American Passages Web social values. Propelled by the G.I. Bill, the vast site, they should be able to expansion of the American college and university system brought higher education to millions of peo- 1. see and discuss connections among Ralph ple from ordinary backgrounds—yet life after col- Ellison’s enthusiasm for jazz, his deep experience lege did not always reflect the possibilities that had in classic American and European literature, and opened up to these bright and hopeful undergradu- his own style and experiments as a writer; ates. Women with college degrees, for instance, still 2. hear and discuss the various ways in which these faced an economic and social system that regarded writers use American urban and ethnic dialects, them as aspiring housewives. speech patterns, and folkways in writing for a The G.I. Bill also changed the bloodlines of multiethnic audience; American thought. By the mid-1950s, the dominion 3. understand how traditional American themes of the New England Ivy League Brahmin with an (growing up, breaking away from established val- Anglo-Saxon pedigree had ended, and the arts and ues, finding love, pursuing dreams) are addressed intellectual life were energized by people with and transformed by each of these authors; names and faces that Henry Adams and T. S. Eliot 4. understand how change in cultural and personal would have thought strange indeed. Many of the life is addressed in the work of several of these emerging authors, including Lionel Trilling, Ralph writers; Ellison, Bernard Malamud, Gwendolyn Brooks, 5. appreciate the dynamics of assimilation and Delmore Schwartz, James Baldwin, Norman Mailer, acculturation; Paule Marshall, Grace Paley, Philip Roth, and Saul 6. define the “novel of identity” as a distinct literary Bellow, did not come from families that would have genre and discuss how it relates to the broader made the “Blue Book” of any prewar American tradition of the bildungsroman; social hierarchy. 7. identify hallmarks of modern and contemporary Unit 14, “Becoming Visible,” provides back- Native American, African American, and Jewish ground and classroom materials on Baldwin, Bel- American literature. low, Ellison, Arthur Miller, Roth, Paley, Malamud, Marshall, N. Scott Momaday, Richard Wright, and Brooks. The video for Unit 14 focuses on three of these authors and explores how writers from this Instructor Overview period responded to the challenge of being Amer- ican in a decade of Cold War, material comfort, In the folk memory of the twenty-first century, the moral anxiety, and deep concern about the place of 1950s are recalled as a decade of bland conservatism independent thinkers and ethnic minorities within and imaginative complacency in the United States. the United States. Ellison, Roth, and Momaday are Television came of age in the 1950s, and it pro- known for their “novels of identity,” works that claimed that suburban ranch houses, station wag- relate a long adventure of growing up and achieving ons, “Father Knows Best,” and “The Man in the a self. Their heroes and journeys are sometimes Gray Flannel Suit” were the icons and obsessions of emblematic of the aspirations and crises of people postwar America. An investigation of newspapers, who had not previously figured so powerfully in however, or a sampling of the literary and intellec- the American imagination. Bellow, Malamud, and tual life of the 1950s will demonstrate that there was Miller also became famous as contributors to this no shortage of vitality, independent thought, and expanded American mythology. moral uncertainty during this time in American his- The video and curriculum materials for Unit 14 tory. As the severe housing shortage after World pay special attention to the mingling of American War II gave way to suburban sprawl and interstate traditions in the works under discussion. Invisible UNIT 11, INSTRUCTORMODERNIST PORTRAITSOVERVIEW 3 Man draws heavily on jazz, blues, and African War II American culture, topics that will be ex- American culture, as well as on the literary tradi- plored in Units 15 and 16. Why were the writers dis- tions of James Joyce, Mark Twain, Fyodor Dosto- cussed in Unit 14 sometimes attacked by members evsky, Franz Kafka, and Thomas Mann. In Portnoy’s of their own ethnic groups? How do the writers dis- Complaint, Philip Roth echoes the Anglo-Saxon nos- cussed in Units 15 and 16 respond to similar attacks talgia of F. Scott Fitzgerald and Thomas Wolfe, as and accusations? well as the exuberance of yiddishkeit, the folk cul- ture of Eastern European Jews. N. Scott Momaday’s House Made of Dawn is experimental in its use of collage, recalling moments in the works of William Student Overview Faulkner, as well as the Kiowa oral tradition. Unit 14 also explores how these ethnic American In the folk memory of the twenty-first century, the writers won the attention of readers and critics 1950s are recalled as a decade of bland conser- beyond the reach of their own communities. What vatism and imaginative complacency in the United aspects of these works resonated for Americans liv- States. Television came of age in the 1950s, and it ing lives very different from the protagonists in proclaimed that suburban ranch houses, station these narratives? Unit 14 helps answer these ques- wagons, “Father Knows Best,” and “The Man in the tions by offering suggestions about how to connect Gray Flannel Suit” were the icons and obsessions of these writers to other writers of the era, to their cul- postwar America. An investigation of newspapers, tural context, and to other units in the series. however, or a sampling of the literary and intellec- The video, the archive, and the curriculum mate- tual life of the 1950s will demonstrate that there was rials situate writers of this generation with refer- no shortage of vitality, independent thought, and ence to several key issues of their day: (1) the rise of moral uncertainty during this time in American his- suburbs and the intensification of the conflict tory. As the severe housing shortage after World between individuality and conformity; (2) the War II gave way to suburban sprawl and interstate migration to urban centers by ethnic minorities; highways, the dynamics of ordinary life were radi- (3) baseball as a symbol of national identity, and the cally reinvented.