| Ralph Ellison（1914-1994）,one of the most influential African American writers since 1950 s,is an accomplished literary critic as well.As one of the most representative pioneers in American cultural studies,he influenced a large number of contemporary African-American writers and critics,and made a milestone contribution to the development of African American literature.Published in 1952,Invisible Man is Ellison’s only full-length novel published during his lifetime.As Ellison’s representative work,this novel has attracted wide attention in the American society and even the world literary circle since its publication,and has won many awards successively,which is hailed as an epoch-making novel.The novel conducts a discussion from three aspects except for the prologue and epilogue: the protagonist’s life in a southern university,his encounter in a paint factory of New York,and his life experience in Harlem.It is the story of the naive young black man’s hard journey to disenchantment and self-search.With the constantly changing story scenes and successively appeared characters,the novel seems to be an epitome of American history after World War II,reproducing the awakening process of the black race’s revolt of oppression and exploitation and pursuit of freedom and liberation under the white-dominated American society.This paper consists of five parts.Chapter One mainly includes the introduction of Ralph Ellison and his novel Invisible Man,as well as a literary review of the domestic and foreign research.Chapter Two introduces the theoretical framework and research methods of this paper in detail.This paper,from the perspective of New Historicism,with the theoretical support of Montrose’s “historicity of text and textuality of history” and Greenblatt’s “subversion and containment” and“self-fashioning”,fully explores the deep causes of African Americans’ miserable condition and attempts to find the best way of the white and the black’s harmonious coexistence through the analysis of the marginal group’s different personal experiences.Chapter Three,with Montrose’s “historicity of text and textuality of history”,centers on the traces of fragmentary historical fragments in the text and the marginal figures’ experiences that deviated from history,expounding the interactive relationship between text and history from two aspects of reproducing textual history and reconstructing historical text.The different experiences of the veteran,the old black couple and Clifton respectively point to three periods of history: the reconstruction of American society after World War II,the enactment of The Emancipation Proclamation during the Civil War,and the outbreak of the African-American Civil Rights Movement.The protagonists,Kate and Sybil,who are physically and mentally suppressed,try to subvert the history written by the white with varying degrees of rebellion,hoping to obtain equality and liberation by challenging the inherent social ideology and the ruling tradition of male supremacy.Chapter Four,based on Greenblatt’s “subversion and containment”,mainly interprets the marginal figures’ subversion to the mainstream ideology and the process of the leading power’s containment to this subversion,so as to further explore the root cause of the tragic endings of the marginal figures.In the face of oppression,the protagonist,the veteran and the young Emerson decide to revolt and struggle,and thus achieving their subversion to the mainstream ideology and the patriarchal society.However,the ruling class won’t sit idly and await their doom,instead,they are bound to take effective measures to control the subversive forces.Brother Tarp’s cumbersome chain,Clifton’s tragic death,and the protagonist’s underground hibernation are powerful evidences of the dominant power’s containment to the subversive forces.The black race has made unremitting efforts to pursue independence and equality,but is still contained by the mainstream ideology and become the victims of the ruling class’ s consolidation of regime.The complex relationship between “subversion” and “containment” signifies that the conflicts between the black race and the ruling class will never be eliminated,and both sides can only ease the tension by mutual understanding and tolerance.Chapter Five,focusing on Greenblatt’s “self-fashioning”,compares the minor characters’ different self-fashioning processes of Dr.Bledsoe,Brockway and brother Jack with the protagonist,and dissects the reasons of their failures or successes.The former three are restrained by different obstacles and temptations and do not complete their self-fashioning,which result in their disability of constructing themselves.The reason why the latter can successfully complete self-fashioning is that his subjective and personal will and the interaction with others,together with the social factors,all have a positive influence on the protagonist’s self-fashioning process.Under the restriction of authoritative discourse and cultural regulations,the creation of one’s self inevitably reserves the marks of subversion and loss of one’s self.Finally,in the Conclusion,from the perspective of New Historicism,this thesis reinterprets the theme that Ellison wants to convey: African Americans need to be rooted in American society,comprehend their national history and return back to their black tradition.Only in this way can they regain freedom and equality,construct subject identity and complete self-fashioning.The ruling class dominated by the white needs to take the vital interests of the marginal groups,stop trapping African-Americans in a dilemma and reject all acts of sabotage and intrigue. |
