مجلة الحقيقة
Volume 23, Numéro 3, Pages 239-251
2024-10-06

Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man As A Misreading Of Richard Wright’s Native Son

Authors : Djellouli Ismail .

Abstract

In light of Harold Bloom’s The Anxiety of Influence, Ralph Ellison is viewed as Richard Wright’s “artist-son” who diverges from his precursor to carve out his own “imaginative space” and assert the originality of his work. While their novels share similarities, notable differences emerge as Ellison rebels against Wright to establish his own literary identity. Ellison departs from Wright’s Marxist ideology and focus on harsh Negro realities, instead embracing the Harlem Renaissance aesthetics and seeing Negro culture as a "healer of the soul." Despite admiring Wright, Ellison avoids merely imitating him, reflecting their different aesthetic and ideological alignments.

Keywords

influence ; precursor ; ideology ; identity ; aesthetics