Global Ralph Ellison

"This essay collection views the work of Ralph Ellison through a transnational lens. It examines how and why this avowedly 'American' author both read widely, himself, in international literature, and has in turn been widely read outside the borders of the USA. How did Ellison's encounters with the Cambridge Ritualists, with Ovid, with Dostoevsky and with Henry James shape both the aesthetics and the politics of his own work? And what is the relationship between Invisible Man and the complex and always-evolving political and cultural contexts of South Africa, of the USSR and Russia, of Germany and of Japan since World War II? Contributors from seven different countries, based in Asia, Africa, Europe and the USA, deploysignificant archival research in Ellison's person library and in the translation and reception histories of his iconic first novel. This study of the world in Ellison and Ellison in the world initiates an important new approach in Ellison studies, illuminating hitherto hidden dimensions of the man and his work"--