Online Archive of University of Virginia Scholarship
Specters of the Past: Redefining the Gothic Genre through Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man743 views
Author
Lamb, Kaylee, English - Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, University of Virginia
Advisors
Arata, Stephen, English, Department of Arts and Sciences
Abstract
This thesis examines how African American writers reuse common gothic tropes and conventions to illustrate their everyday lived reality and the haunting, psychological turmoil of slavery. I will be using Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man to highlight how the gothic saturates much of African American literature, but also how such authors appropriate and subvert gothic tropes and conventions to reclaim Black identity and agency. By examining the gothic elements of Invisible Man, we can see how Ellison transformed those elements to help relay the Black experience.
Degree
MA (Master of Arts)
Keywords
gothic; Ralph Ellison; Invisible Man; haunting; slavery; identity
Language
English
Rights
All rights reserved (no additional license for public reuse)
Lamb, Kaylee. Specters of the Past: Redefining the Gothic Genre through Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man. University of Virginia, English - Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, MA (Master of Arts), 2021-07-01, https://doi.org/10.18130/53cz-r865.
