Abstract

Given the alarming problems in today's Afro-American communities , can we conclude that Afro-Americans are self-destructive or rather that Afro-Americans are being destroyed ? Are black and white Americans moving towards mutual recognition or mutual destruction? It is my contention that the works of Ralph Ellison are especially illuminating in answering such important questions. As Ellison maintains, literature has the transcendent capacity to shed more light on our common humanity than the scientific study of human beings as mere objects or social roles. ;Ralph Ellison's novel, Invisible Man, can be read as a philosophical treatise on human motivation, as a powerful statement on two conflicting personalities , indeed as a "phenomenology of Afro-American consciousness." I seek to explicate Ellison's world view as it emerges from his novel and numerous essays. This world view is based on, first, the idea of "culturalism," which includes a "novelistic manifesto" that emphasizes the unique function of the novel in its ability to shape an American conception of the American; and second, a psychology of oppression. Reality here is conceived of in a dialectical fashion, i.e., as a series of contradictions and reversals. The phenomenal world is described as violent, absurd, cunning, and unreal, especially for Afro-Americans. Thus, Afro-American consciousness tends to be characterized by skepticism, and by distrust, but also by "double vision." ;I have traced Ellison's intellectual origins back to Hegel via American transcendentalism and philosophical anthropology. My methodological approach is primarily neo-Hegelian. I see a direct connection between Ellison's writings and Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit. ;I use Hegel's master-slave model to account for Ellison's interpretation of contemporary American society in which blacks and whites are no longer seen as just opposed to each other, but actually as constituting a unity which they themselves are often unaware of. Revelation of this unity may be the only hope of saving both parties from self-destruction