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Identity, Capitalism and Aesthetics in Invisible Man
Kovařík, Tomáš ; Delbos, Stephan (advisor) ; Roraback, Erik Sherman (referee)
While conventional readings of Invisible Man primarily focus on its status as a race-critical novel, this BA thesis will discuss and develop the notion that the novel is in fact an experimental Bildungsroman whose narrator is a universal figure and whose development across the narrative is analogical to that of any person building their identity in today's late capitalist society. By analyzing key moments in the novel with the help of late-20th -century and contemporary critical, cultural and political theories, the text will arrive at an original reading that synthesizes those approaches, and which can be used to better understand even contemporary life. The first chapter will establish what precisely makes the text an experimental coming-of-age novel by introducing the genre's conventions that started in German Romanticism with Goethe, and will then trace these features and their distinctive emergences in Invisible Man. The second chapter will then consist of an analysis of the social system as it is presented in the novel, exploring the oppressive capitalist power structure that both requires and prevents the narrator's assimilation, and highlighting how specific characters in the novel cling to their power with no regard for the experience of others. This will be supported by theories and...
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