Description
Book SynopsisAn in-depth analysis of the composition of Invisible Man and Ralph Ellisons move away from the radical left during his writing of the novel between 1945 and 1952.
Trade Review“Impeccably scholarly and full of imaginative surprises,
Wrestling with the Left ranks with the most revealing criticism ever produced on Ralph Ellison. Nowhere else is the gestation of
Invisible Man and the youngish intellectual who conceived it discussed so fully and incisively.”—
William J. Maxwell, author of
New Negro, Old Left: African-American Writing and Communism Between the Wars“Seeking the truth (pro and con) about Ellison’s complex engagement with Communism, Barbara Foley has written a book indispensable to Ellison studies. She is a tireless scholar who has mastered, like no one before her, the daunting jungle of manuscripts that amply documents Ellison’s indebtedness to, and also his calculated later airbrushing of, the vitality and generosity of the radicals who nourished him on the long road to
Invisible Man. Stern but fair, Barbara Foley is a shrewd, lively, lucid writer with a fascinating if controversial tale to tell. This book ably fills perhaps the biggest gap in our critical and biographical understanding of Ralph Ellison.”—
Arnold Rampersad, author of
Ralph Ellison: A Biography“
Wrestling with the Left upends critical conversations about Ellison,
Invisible Man, and the Communist legacy. By showing canonical interpretations of Invisible Man to be the politically-motivated discourses they are, Barbara Foley reopens rather than colonizes the question of Ralph Ellison’s politics. Any future attempts to wrestle with Ralph Ellison and his visions of Black identity, culture, art, history, and American society would do well to emulate the unapologetic political commitment and clarity of purpose of Foley’s work. ” -- Nathaniel Mills * Against the Current *
“[A] compelling, detailed work. . . . Recommended.” -- A. Hirsh * Choice *
“Fans of Ralph Ellison must put Barbara Foley’s
Wrestling with the Left on their reading list. This substantial critical study, some fifteen years in the making, returns to early drafts of
Invisible Man to offer a bold new reading of one of the most acclaimed American novels of the twentieth century.... After Foley’s analysis of the material in Ellison’s drafts, one in fact gains an even greater appreciation for the richness and complexity of what remains one of the great works of American literature.” -- Brian Dolinar * African American Review *
"We are not likely to get a more capacious and visionary political re-reading—or re-writing—of
Invisible Man." -- Bill Mullen * Science & Society *
“
Wrestling with the Left is profoundly significant. It is a monumental, scrupulously researched, solidly argued reading of
Invisible Man, a novel central to the history and teaching of African American literature and American modernism.” -- Dan Colson * Modern Fiction Studies *
“Foley is careful, lucid, thorough, and fair, and her book stands as a strong corrective to more reductive readings of Ellison’s novel and of his life.” -- Alan Nadel * American Literature *
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments ix
Note on the Text xi
Introduction: Reading Forward to
Invisible Man 1
Part I.
1. Forming a Politics 27
2. Developing an Aesthetic 69
3. Writing from the Left 109
Part II.
4. Living Jim Crow 153
5. Becoming Proletarian 187
6. Finding Brotherhood 237
7. Recognizing Necessity 281
8. Beginning and Ending 325
Notes 351
Selected Bibliography 429
Index 433
