“He was not a participant in the Civil Rights Movement, he was not a supporter of Martin Luther King, he did not oppose the war in Vietnam,” Wald says.But although the novel deals with many progressive themes, Wald says Ellison was “becoming more moderate” when the book was published. He says Ellison’s discussion of economic issues, like the lasting economic effects of slavery on Black Americans, are still relevant to readers today, and are becoming more prominent as discussions of systemic racism continue.Wald discusses “the use of myth to distort history in order to see the actual history,” in “Invisible Man,” which he says puts the characters in a position to push against those myths and the societal forces they represent.Wald says that the journey of the titular Invisible Man is reflective of Ellison’s own experiences as a Black man in 20th century America. “The book is a kind of sequence of initiations into roles that were created for African Americans in the 20th century,” Wald says. Invisible Man is a novel by Ralph Ellison about an African American man whose color renders him invisible, published by Random House in 1952.
In this first installment, we speak with Alan Wald, professor emeritus in the Department of American Culture at the University of Michigan, who studies 20th century U.S. Your browser does not support the audio element.Ĭlick on the player to hear University of Michigan’s Alan Wald discuss book and the politics of Ralph Ellison. Shadow and Act Ralph Ellison 4.11 600 ratings35 reviews With the same intellectual incisiveness and supple, stylish prose he brought to his classic novel Invisible Man, Ralph Ellison examines his antecedents and in so doing illuminates the literature, music, and culture of both black and white America. “Ralph Ellison was an Uncle Tom to some, a literary father figure to others.” - Alan Wald, University of Michigan Listen: “Invisible Man” is Relevant to Black Lives Matter Today. National Book Award for Fiction in 1953.ĭetroit Today’s Stephen Henderson and readers will discuss the novel weekly on-air and online in the WDET Book Club Facebook community. You can follow along by reading 2 – 3 chapters a week until the end of August. The novel’s interrogation of power, systemic racism and inequality has never felt more urgent or pertinent than it does today. WDET’s Book Club is back for a third year, and this summer’s selection is Ralph Ellison’s “Invisible Man,” a formative work of the 20th century and winner of the U.S.
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