ENG 372 Visible Influence: Ralph Ellison and the Contemporary American Novel

Ralph Ellison (1914-1994) is best known for his 1952 novel Invisible Man, widely considered a masterpiece of modern fiction and a classic of American literature. He is also remembered for his bold, wide-ranging essays on the dynamics of race and identity in American history, literature, and culture. While foregrounding the work and thought of Ralph Ellison, this course offers a critical examination of experiences of race and stylistic experiment across the American novel from Ellison onward. Attention is given to Ralph Ellison's literary and intellectual predecessors, his contemporaries, and the history of his popular reception and critical influence. Students explore not only Ellison's creative work but his importance to subsequent generations of writers, particularly contemporary novelists, Adam Mansbach, Percival Everett, Colson Whitehead, Mat Johnson, and Viet Thanh Nguyen.