The Dilemma And The Awakening Of The Black

Ralph Ellison（1914-1994）has been regarded as one of the most influential African American writers since the 1950s,and is also an outstanding literary critic and pioneer of American cultural studies.Since its publication in 1952,Invisible Man has aroused a strong response in American literary circles,and has won the National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize successively,which is known as an epoch-making novel in the 20^th century.Up to now,scholars at home and abroad have studied the novel from the perspectives of existentialism,identity construction,archetypal criticism and writing skills,but few have analyzed it from the perspective of space.Different from the traditional novels narrated in chronological order,there is no definite time point in the Invisible Man,and it is the switching of scenes that promotes the development of the story,in which the protagonist’s mental cognition is constantly reconstructed.Based on Lefebvre’s space narrative theory,this thesis analyzes the survival dilemma of the black and their awakening process in the white people’s spatial domain from three aspects:physical space,social space and mental space.This thesis consists of five parts.It first makes an introduction of the writer Ralph Ellison and his work Invisible Man,and summarizes the current study of this novel both at home and abroad.In addition,the development process of space theory is summarized,and Lefebvre’s space theory is introduced in detail.The first chapter studies the residence and living dilemmas of the black and their awakening in physical space.The great difference between the living environment of the white and the black reveals their unequal social status.At the same time,with the ideology of“white superior,black inferior”,it is difficult for the black to survive in the white space.However,the switching of the protagonist’s location also promotes his awakening of consciousness and eventually produces his own space.The second chapter discusses the interpersonal dilemma and awakening process of the black people in social space.The spatial representation of the white discourse and power oppresses and persecutes the black both physically and mentally.Moreover,not only the white people enslave the black people,there is also discrimination and prejudice among the black people,and women are an unavoidable victim group,which are oppressed by patriarchy and male discourse.However,there are also some black people who strive to resist through spatial practice and establish their own representational spaces.The third chapter analyzes the dilemma and awakening of the black in mental space.This chapter analyzes the changes in black’s mental space from the protagonist’s understanding of his grandfather’s last words and his recognition of his hometown culture and tradition.Through the spatial narrative on the three levels of physical space,social space and mental space,this thesis has demonstrated that the construction of spatial structure plays an important role in the generation of novel meaning and the expression of theme.The living dilemma of the black is caused by the inequality of living space between the black and the white.With the representation of space of the white,the acquisition of the black’s identity requires them to actively engage in spatial practice,and form a unique differential space belonging to the black group,so they can have their own identity rather than become“invisible”.The dilemma of the black has always been the focus of Ellison’s attention.From a new perspective,the analysis of the dilemma and awakening of the black reveals his concern for the black and his expectation for solving this problem.