Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man

Few African American novels have generated the kind of attention that Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man (1952) has over the last several decades. I asked Laura Vrana to produce an episode for our podcast series, Remarkable Receptions.

Vrana writes that, 

When Ralph Ellison was writing Invisible Man in the 1940s, few would have predicted that a complex modernist novel that blends autobiography, epic, picaresque, and bildungsroman could secure his reputation as a literary icon. No doubt, this tome drips with allegory, surrealism, and allusions. But what makes it so resonant that it could surmount initial condemnation by Black literary lights, appear on countless syllabi, and feature prominently in the life and media coverage of President Obama and in the Netflix series Luke Cage?

 

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Related:

• Episodes of Remarkable Receptions