A Dialogic Study Of Invisible Man

Invisible Man,an American classic, has been regarded as the most important work of Ralph Ellison. Because of its universality of theme and the exquisite style, the novel stirred the critical circle immediately upon its publication in 1952. Though this novel has been extensively interpreted and criticized, its dialogic nature is little explored by scholars so far. This thesis intends to make an attempt to examine Invisible Man from a dialogic perspective based on Bakhtin's dialogism. It discusses how Ralph Ellison constitutes plots, structure, theme, language and characters in a dialogic way that demonstrates the relations at the linguistic, structural, and ideological levels. It explores the structural dialogism within the novel, dialogic use of language and the dialogues between the protagonist and the author, the reader and himself respectively. The research will open a new field for the study of not only the novel Invisible Man but also the author Ralph Ellison.The thesis consists of five parts:Chapter One is the introduction of the thesis. It offers (1) a brief account of Invisible Man and a literature review of the studies done so far;(2) a survey of Bakhtin's dialogism and its relation with the novel; (3) the general structure of the thesis.Chapter Two analyses dialogism within the novel itself. The striking feature of the novel is the inseparability of its structure and theme. Both the theme and the structure interact with each other thus forming dialogues with each other. In the novel Ellison does not develop the story in a chronological order, instead, he juxtaposes several episodes, which form a kind of dialogic relationship, too. The novel is open-ended and Ellison does not give an exact answer to the question he has proposed in his novel. In this way, the novel offers the reader great freedom for imagination after having finished reading it.Chapter Three explores the language of the novel. Bakhtin's dialogic theory is inspired by Russian folklore and Ellison equally draws on traditional black folklore, such as jazz and blues. Besides, Ellison uses a lot of devices in the novel, especially irony and parody, which, according to Bakhtin, are dialogic by nature. In Invisible Man, language not only acts as the means of communication, but also embodies the user's worldview.Chapter Four studies the dialogic relationship between the characters, especially the dialogues between the protagonist and the author, the protagonist and the reader, and the protagonist himself and his own consciousness. In the novel the protagonist is a master who has his own thinking and ideas rather than an object passively described by the author. The author and the protagonist talk with each other equally and freely. This is a typical feature of Bakhtin's dialogism embodied in discourse.Chapter Five is the concluding part which points out that a good understanding of Invisible Man's dialogic nature is the key to a good understanding of the novel. All the elements of the novel are not working independently, but interact dialogically with each other. The truth lies right in the dialogue. Only by active dialogue, can we penetrate into the depth of man that cannot be finalized and capture the fluidity of reality. What is more, the novel possesses typical features of postmodernism due to its dialogic nature. Ellison creates the novel to subvert the tradition and to enhance us to take a new look at the world. Finally, it points out the limitations of the research and provides some suggestions for future studies.