In some ways, Ralph Ellison's protagonist in Invisible Man emblematizes what might be call

In some ways, Ralph Ellison's protagonist in Invisible Man emblematizes

what might be called the "presentist simplicity" of the novel's endorsement of

industrial, imperialist, xenophobic American myth-making. Layer upon layer of

Line allusion mark its chapters, which in combination with the novel's Homeric

(5) ambitiousness, serve finally to obscure rather than to prophesy the actual,

engaged, advanced-guard, public sphere effectiveness of American blacks

already at work modernizing the United States. Simply stated, Ellison believed

morality, equality, and responsibility were affirmative "notions", but blacks, at

the very moment of Invisible Man's glorious reception, were transforming

(10) "notions" into decisively affirmative actions, by courageously putting body and

soul on the line and constructing a sphere of American ethical publicity

undreamed by the novelist. Ellison thus remained silent on the possibilities of an

altogether "unexceptional" America-a post-industrial, radically black public

sphere conditioned America.

The author is primarily concerned with

A．criticizing Ellison on the basis of reactionary assumptions his work makes about politically-involved blacks

B．exposing the limitations of Ellison's novel when compared with the actual work performed by black workers and activists

C．chronicling the effects Ellison's novel had upon the black activist movements of the 1960's

D．comparing Ellison's view of post-industrial black America with that of the activists working at the time

E．critically describing Ellison's approach as novelist to the task of ethical publicity