Approaches to Teaching Ellison's Invisible Man

Teachers of Invisible Man differ about which aspect of Ralph Ellison’s novel deserves the most emphasis. According to Susan Resneck Parr, a coeditor of this volume, “some [teachers] argue that a thematic approach is the most appropriate because the text can and should speak for itself, [while] others are as fervent that the novel cannot be understood unless its readers are informed about the literary, biblical, psychological, musical, philosophical, classical, and historical motifs that permeate it.” Most often, how the novel is taught depends on the course in which it is included, the time allotted, and the sophistication of the students. The essays collected in Approaches to Teaching Ellison’s Invisible Man reflect this diversity of teaching methods and classroom settings.

This Approaches volume, like others in the MLA series, is divided into two parts. Part 1, “Materials,” surveys resources for classroom instruction, such as critical scholarship, and reviews background studies on a variety of topics, including American Communism, Freudian psychology, African American history, and existentialism. In part 2, “Approaches,” sixteen contributors suggest a variety of teaching strategies; consider the novel in the context of African American, American, and Western literary traditions, among others; and discuss Ellison’s debt to music and folk tradition.