Fooling Invisibility - A Bakhtinian reading of Ralph Ellisons "Invisible Man":Applying Bakhtinian theory to Ralph Ellisons "Invisible Man"

Masters Thesis from the year 2009 in the subject American Studies - Literature, grade: 1,0, University of Siegen (FB 3 Amerikanistik), language: English, abstract: Chapter One Time-space and space-time: Consequences of the Chronotope in Introduction There must be possible a fiction which, leaving sociology and case histories to the scientists, can arrive at the truth about the human condition, here and now, with all the bright magic of the fairy tale. - Ralph Ellison [...] the study of verbal art can and must overcome the divorce between an abstract "formal" approach and an equally abstract "ideological" approach. Form and content in discourse are one, once we understand that verbal discourse is a social phenomenon - social throughout its entire range and in each and every of its factors, from the sound image to the furthest reaches of abstract meaning. - Mikhail Bakhtin _____________ In the process of preparation for this MA thesis I was on the verge of abandoning the project. I was afraid Ralph Ellisons novel Invisible Man would become far too intimate for me, the subject too tense, the motifs too disturbing, the language too intrinsic. I feared that the novel would keep concealed and invisible the wealth I suspect between the lines. I did not, and I still dont like Ellisons Invisible Man. It felt uncomfortable and disturbing the first time I read it and with every additional reading the ambivalence I felt increased. I sympathize and fully share Ross Possnocks sentiment on Ralph Ellisons novel: "Ellison makes reading a gymnasts struggle" (6). Despite all efforts, reading Invisible Man remained an uncomfortable and exhausting struggle until the very end. Eventually Invisible Man provided many experiences all adding up to some very disturbing revelations about my own "racialized" positionality. I began to scrutinize, my thought process pertaining to race, trying to expose any possible racist notions. The challenge was and still is painful and at times causes