Ralph Ellison (1914–1994) was an American novelist and essayist, best known for Invisible Man (1952), which won the U.S. National Book Award. His work combines modernist techniques with themes central to African-American experience.

Born March 1, 1914; died April 16, 1994. Invisible Man (1952) won the National Book Award in 1953. Other notable publications include Shadow and Act (essays), Going to the Territory (essays), and the posthumous Juneteenth.

Two reviews on DeBaser celebrate Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man for its striking, experimental prose and modernist techniques. They emphasize themes of racial invisibility and social marginalization. Reviewers find the novel both bleak and powerful, historically rooted yet still relevant. Ellison's work is described as blending symbolism, modernist influence, and social critique.

For:Readers of 20th-century American literature, students of African-American studies, fans of modernist fiction.

 

I hold a glass prism in my hands, tilt it, and let the light pass through it, lingering to watch, completely bewildered, the changing plays of light that form and dissolve on the floor. What fascinates me is the simplicity with which the designs that now cover the tiles in the room change. And it's just a matter of millimeters. Ellison writes like this.

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Ralph Ellison transcends the boundaries of African-American literature: realism is obsolete, insufficient to represent a particular and complicated situation like that of black America.

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