JAZZ TEMPORALITY AND NARRATIVE: A READING OF RALPH ELLISON'S INVISIBLE MAN

This thesis explores the complex relationship between jazz, temporality, and narrative form in Ralph Ellison's <italic>Invisible Man</italic>. Although Ellison rejected the notion that he was a political writer, his novel still functions as a form of protest based on its narrative form which ultimately seeks to undermine traditional formulations of time. Specifically, Ellison's narrator, Invisible Man, controls his narrative by employing a unique temporal configuration to assert his subjectivity and to press against hegemonic structures intent on homogenizing individuals. This unique temporality borrows from traditional jazz and utilizes literary forms of swing, syncopation, and solo improvisation in an effort to protest the universalizing temporal modes of fatalism, determinism, and reversion.

Grantor dc:publisher

Wake Forest University

Year dc:date.issued

2013

Author dc:creator

• Lee, Jordan Crosby

• Ellison

Language dc:language.iso

en

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/10339/38520

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:wakespace.lib.wfu.edu:10339/38520