Postmodernist Features in Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man

Essay from the year 2003 in the subject American Studies - Literature, grade: 1.0, University of Kent (School of English), course: American Modernisms, language: English, abstract: In an attempt to place Ralph Waldo Ellison's novel Invisible Man within aModernist framework, Berndt Ostendorf writes, Ellison is a Spatling, a latecomer to Modernism. Ellison s Modernism is not one of crisis and despair, but of innovation and hope. He accepts thediscipline implied in [Ezra Pound s] slogan make it new, but rejects thecultural pessimism of his ancestors. 1Although Ostendorf s description is right insofar that Ellison s work is optimistic in itsoutcome rather than as pessimistic as the majority of modernist novels, it does not seemto be in agreement with the term Modernism in general. Isn t modernist literatureusually called a literature of crisis ?2 Isn t Modernism said to feature elements ofcultural apocalypse rather than the hope Ostendorf mentions?3 And: Doesn tOstendorf s statement resemble a definition of Postmodernism rather than Modernism?In fact, Ellison s novel is hard to categorize. Critics agree that Invisible Man includescharacteristics of different literary periods. Malcolm Bradbury, for instance, says thenovel mixes naturalism, expressionism, and surrealism and thereby places itsomewhere between Modernism and Postmodernism.4 As these two terms areproblematic as far as their definitions are concerned, this essay will begin by namingsome of the key characteristics of both periods. Later on, the essay will point out anumber of typically postmodern features that Ellison integrates into Invisible Man andgive examples from the novel itself. Eventually, the essay will discuss whether InvisibleMan should be considered a modernist or postmodernist novel. 1 Berndt Ostendorf, Anthropology, Modernism, and Jazz , in Harold Bloom, RalphEllison, Chelsea House Publishers, 1986, pp. 161 - 1642 Peter Childs, Modernism, Routledge, 2000, p.143 Malcolm Bradbury in A Dictionary of Modern Critical Terms, ed. Roger Fowler, asquotes in Childs, Op. Cit., p. 24 Malcolm Bradbury, The Modern American Novel, 2nd edition, Oxford UniversityPress, 1992, p. 166