Bellow, S. 1952. Man underground. Commentary. June issue. XIII: 608-610.Bloom, H., ed. 1986. Ralph Ellison. New York: Chelsea House Publishers. Bone, R. 1970. Ralph Ellison and the uses of imagination. In: Twentieth

century interpretations of Invisible Man, ed. J.M. Reilly, 22-31. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall,

Burke, K. 2004. Ralph Ellison’s Trueblooded Bildungsroman. In: Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man: A casebook, ed. J.F. Callahan, 65-79. New York: Oxford University Press.

Busby, M. 1991. Ralph Ellison. Boston: Twayne Publishers.Butler, R.J., ed. 2000. The Critical Response to Ralph Ellison. Westport,

CT: Greenwood Press.Callahan, J.F., ed. 2004. Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man: A casebook. New

York: Oxford University Press. Cooper, M.E. 1974. “The jazz motif in Invisible Man.” M.A. thesis,

Department of English, NCSU, Raleigh. Corry, J. 1970. Profiles of an American novelist. Black World XX:116-125.Graham, M., and A. Singh, eds. 1995. Conversations with Ralph Ellison.

Jackson: University Press of Mississippi. Hersey, J. 1974. Ralph Ellison: A collection of critical essays, ed. J.

Hersey. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall. Howe, I. 1952. Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man. The Nation. 10 May issue. Jackson, L.P. 2002. Ralph Ellison, Emergence of Genius. New York: John

Wiley & Sons, Inc.Moreland, R.C. 1999. Learning from difference: Teaching Morrison, Twain,

Ellison, and Eliot. Columbus: Ohio State University Press.O’Meally, R.G. 1980. The craft of Ralph Ellison. Cambridge: Harvard

University Press.O’Meally, R., ed. 1988. New essays on Invisible Man. Cambridge, England:

Cambridge University PressParr, S.R. and P. Savery, eds. 1989. Approaches to teaching Ellison’s

Invisible Man. New York, NY: Modern Language Association of AmericPorter, H.A. 2001. Jazz country: Ralph Ellison in America. Iowa City,

Iowa: University of Iowa Press. Reilly, J.M., ed. 1970. Twentieth century interpretations of Invisible Man, ,

48-55. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc.Romanet, J. de. 1984. Musical elements in Invisible Man with special

reference to the blues. Delta 18:105-118.

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From Mismeasure of Man to Invisible Man:An examination of scientific racism in the U.S.

Carol Anelli1 and Richard Law,2 1Department of Entomology & Honors College, 2General Education Program

Our section of Western Civilization (UH 330) explores the impact of science on society in historical and current contexts. The course aligns with WSU’s Six learning Goals of the Baccalaureate.

Ellison’s Invisible Man

Invisible Man recapitulates the African American experience from the era of Booker T. Washington to World War II. It is capacious in scope and operates on several levels. The novel’s themes, allusions, cultural references, etc., provide a depth and breadth seldom achieved in a single literary work.

CONCLUSIONS

Classroom Activities

____________________________________________________________________

RESULTS ABSTRACT

Ellison on Jazz & Blues

Dr. Greg Yasinitsky,

Meyer Distinguished Professor of

Music, provides guest lecture. Figure 1b. 2007 Likert Responses.

6 7

11

68 8

5

6 4

3

5

5 6

4

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

1 2 3 4 5 6 8

Questionnaire prompt #

(N)

of 1

4 to

tal r

espo

nden

ts

Likert score=5 Likert score=4

Figure 1a. 2005 Likert Responses.

4

8

23 4 5

8

3

95

55

20

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Questionnaire Prompt #

(N)

of 1

3 to

tal r

esp

ond

ents

Likert score=5 Likert score=4

Selected Resources

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American Masters DVD:

Ralph

Ellison

Double-Entry

Journals

StudentGroup

Presentation

s

Yasinitsky onLouis

Armstrong and Jazz

Lecture on Music in

Invisible Man

We focus here on the arts & humanities portion of the unit that examines scientific attempts to quantify human intellectual worth. To begin the unit, students read S. J. Gould’s Mismeasure of Man, which scrutinizes scientific data from the 18th-20th centuries. These grossly flawed data had appalling consequences, including imprisonment and extermination of Jews under Nazi Germany, and enslavement and segregation of African Americans.

As a companion text to the scientifically oriented Mismeasure of Man, students read Ralph Ellison’s modern classic novel, Invisible Man. Our poster emphasizes the novel’s use of

music.We provide teaching resources, pedagogy, and student responses to the pedagogy.

Ellison wrote many essays on jazz and the blues. He stated that he used the improvisational elements of jazz to develop his prose for Invisible Man.

Ellison termed the blues “an assertion of the irrepressibly human over all circumstances.”

Invisible Man contains more than 50 explicit references to music, and the novel’s structure is musically based.

Students view a DVD on Ellison that

features interviews with

literary and

social critics.

Students write

double-entry

journals on the novel that

facilitate

classroom discussio

n.

Student presentations place Invisible Man in

historical context.

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Ellison used the 12-bar blues form

to structure the novel.

Characters are

associated with

spirituals or blues;

the protagonist

is associated

with jazz.

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Bessie Smith, “Empress of the Blues,” whose best known recording was of Backwater

Blues, a song associated with Ellison’s character named Mary

Rambo

Image Frank Driggs Collection

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Summary data for student responses to questionnaire prompts are graphed below (2005 & 2007 data). Each prompt featured a Likert scale and free-form response space. Prompt

#Questionnaire Prompts (Note: Student responses were anonymous.)

1 I suggest you retain Invisible Man as part of the course reading books.

2 I suggest you retain the double-entry journal exercise.

3 Discussions of Invisible Man enhanced my comprehension of the novel.

4 Working on my group project deepened my comprehension of the novel.

5 The lecture on Music in Invisible Man enhanced my appreciation of the novel.

6 I suggest you again ask Prof. Yasinitsky to do a guest lecture for Invisible Man.

7 I found the categorizing grid to be helpful for my group project. (2005 only)

8 I suggest that student groups lead class discussions of chapters in Invisible Man. (2007 only)

Likert scoring scale: 5=strongly agree, 4=agree, 3=neutral, 2=disagree, 1=strongly disagree

Students responded favorably (Likert value=4 or 5) to prompts #1, 2, 3, 5, 6. This suggests that students value interdisciplinary approaches to teaching. Free-form responses to prompts #4, 7, and 8, which received less favorable responses, were informative: • Prompt #4: Some students felt that group projects were extra work; some indicated their dislike for group work of any sort. • Prompt #7: Some students stated that they never used the categorizing grid, or it didn’t fit well with their topic. We eliminated this activity in 2007. • Prompt #8: Some students questioned their qualifications for leading class discussions, or thought it more beneficial to hear the opinions of many rather than a few students.