“Something Warmly, Infuriatingly Feminine”: Racial (Un)Gendering in Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man
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2013
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Haverford College. Department of English
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Thesis
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Award
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eng
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Open Access
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Abstract
Ralph Ellison’s novel, Invisible Man, has often been accused of exclusively employing simplistic stereotypes in depicting its female characters; yet upon closer examination, Ellison’s female characters are not only complex but also deeply meaningful to the novel’s messages regarding race and gender identity in America. Together, Hortense Spillers, Judith Butler, and Eric Lott provide the key theoretical framework for examining the dynamic intersections of race and gender in Ellison’s novel. Spiller’s notion of the “ungendered” black woman is particularly critical for understanding the relationship between black and white femininity. All of these theorists share an approach based in history, which fits naturally with Ellison’s own use of the past as an important tool in his novel. The magnificent blonde, Mr. Norton’s daughter, Matty Lou, Mary Rambo, and Sybil stand as five of the novel’s most significant female characters and, when read together, they illustrate the journey that the Invisible Man himself undergoes in his understanding of race and gender. This selection of female characters provides a diverse array of seemingly stereotypical images that are ultimately complicated by their relationship to the protagonist. The last character, Sybil, is instrumental in the Invisible Man’s critical decision to go into “hibernation” at the end of the novel. Yet Ellison’s Invisible Man nevertheless leaves the reader with an optimistic hope for a better understanding of gender and race in the future.