The Creative Concept And Practice Of Ralph Ellison's Cultural Integrationism

Ralph Ellison is one of the most important African-American writers since the 1950 s and he is also an American literary critic and cultural researcher.In his works of literature,cultural criticism and novels,Ellison shows his advanced ideas of cultural integration.In 1960 s,The debate between Irving Howe and Ellison on the artistic aesthetics and ideology of African American literary creation reflects Ellison's “anxiety of influence” to literary predecessors Richard Wright.The underlying reason lies in the divergence between the "protest novel" represented by Wright and the new black literature represented by Ellison.Under the academic background at that time,Ellison put forward his own integrated concepts of literary writing on the basis of absorbing literary resources of predecessors critically,which advocated to eliminate the disadvantages of black nationalism and black assimilation,and promote cultural and racial integration.Since he grew up in a rational and open frontier environment,he had a desire for racial integration.And in the United States with mixed blood ties,black and white people as well as their culture had a tendency to merge very early.Due to these reasons,Ellison determined to implement the concept of "integration" in literary creation.Ellison's view of cultural integration is highlighted in the following aspects: First,African American literature is influenced by the tradition of black literature and western literature.Therefore its genealogy shows the characteristics of black and white integration.In addition,he thought that there's no culture difference between black and white people.The integration of black and white culture forms the unique American culture.He points out that the cultural foundation of African American literature is the unity of American culture.There is diversity in American culture as a whole,and the cultural diversity brings "diversity anxiety" to the creation of minority writers.The effective way to eliminate this "anxiety" is to use "black experience" to interpret "American experience",which is exactly the purpose of African American writers.But the best way to show black experience is to re-explain their own national culture-black folk culture.Under this premise,Ellison considered African-American folk culture,such as blues,folk stories and vernacular idioms,as a valuable cultural heritage and source of creative materials.Finally,Ellison opposed the separation of ideology from literature and art and he thought that politic and art can be integrated in works.In his novels,Ellison referred to the European tradition of white literature,inherited the resources of black folk culture,and he realized the concept of cultural integration in his own literary works.