Invisible Man Ralph Ellison Research Paper

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Through his writings Ralph Ellison has earned himself the title of being the leading African American writer of the twentieth century. Ellison did not write several large pieces of literature. Although he had written several short stories and essays which were composed into the book Shadow and Act, Invisible Man was his only novel (Themes and Styles). It was with this novel that he received the 1953 National Book Award for portraying the daily struggles that the African American had to endure in the 1930s. Going back as far as 400B.C there have always been ever changing literary periods and Movements (Literature Timeline). Form Old English, Renaissance, and Neoclassical, to Romantic, Victorian, and Modern periods. Through these periods there have been several authors that have stood out and are most called upon in certain literary periods. Ralph Ellison had done his more notable work during the 1950s, Invisible Man. This would place him in the era of literature known as Postmodernism. Authors like J.D. Salinger author of The Catcher and the Rye, William Golding author of Lord of the Flies, Ellie Wiesel author of Night, and many more contemporary writers fall under this period. Pereira 2…show more content…
On the surface postmodernism comes off as an incredibly positive and optimistic era. The postmodern era bloomed right at the close of World War Two, which instigated a feeling of fear, apprehension and discontent (Postmodernism). Postmodernism is chiefly an antiphon to objective attempts to explain reality. It asserts that apparent realities are only “social constructs”, and there is no absolute truth (Postmodernism). Postmodernism relies on “concrete experience” and argues that the outcome of one’s experience will be totally relative. Many of these key principles of Postmodernism originated from early enlightenment ideas

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