Do Congressional Republicans flatter Trump Goneril-like out of convenience or do they “love Big Brother”? Dostoevsky’s Grand Inquisitor may hold the key.
Tag Archives: Invisible Man
Does the GOP Love Big Brother?
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "Maldive Shark", 1984, Brothers Karamazov, Congressional Republicans, Fyodor Dostoevsky, George Orwell, GOP, GOP Tax Plan, Grand Inquisitor, H. G. Wells, Herman Melville Comments closed
GOP Tax Plan and the Invisible Man
If the GOP tax plan panders to the wealthiest Americans, maybe it’s because they are like H.G. Wells’s Invisible Man and believe they can act with impunity.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Donald Trump, GOP Tax Bill, H. G. Wells, Mitch McConnell, Paul Ryan, Plato, Republic Comments closed
Lit Encourages World Citizenship
Political identity arguments that demographic groups should stay in their own lanes fail to acknowledge the power of literature to “cross group boundaries,” according to philosopher Martha Nussbaum.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Humanities, identity politics, Martha Nussbaum, Ralph Ellison Comments closed
DACA Kids, Back to the Shadows?
“Invisible Man,” with its protagonist moving in and out of shadows, is all too relevant as the Trump administration threatens to deport the DACA kids.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged DACA, Donald Trump, Jeff Sessions, Ralph Ellison Comments closed
We Benefit When We Check Our Privilege
Do be blind to one’s privileges is to live in a world of shadows and phantoms, as Ralph Ellison and Lucille Clifton both make clear. Life if much richer if we identify our blindnesses and engage with people as three-dimensional beings.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "wishes for sons", Lucille Clifton, racism, Ralph Ellison, white privilege Comments closed
Can Art Thwart Trump? A Debate
In which I argue with a writer who claims that art and artists have an inflated sense of their power and that they are irrelevant in the battle against Donald Trump.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Donald Trump, Grapes of Wrath, Harriet Beecher Stowe, John Steinbeck, propaganda, Ralph Ellison, Richard Wright, social realism, socialist realism, Uncle Tom's Cabin, W. H. Auden Comments closed
Must Dreamers “Hibernate” Again?
Ellison’s Invisible Man must retreat to a hole–or, as he calls it, hibernate–after getting banged around by reality. With Trump as president, will the Dreamers and others who benefitted from Obama’s prosecutorial discretion have to hibernate as well, returning back to the shadows?
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged DACA, Donald Trump, Dreamers, Immigration, Ralph Ellison, undocumented workers Comments closed
Invisible Man & Lolita Changed the ’50s
Ellison’s “Invisible Man” and Nabokov’s “Lolita” both challenged basic 1950s assumptions. The former changed public perceptions on what it meant to be black while the latter violated a tacit agreement not to go digging under neatly manicured lawns bordered by white picket fences.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged 1950s, aestheticism, formalism, Hans Robert Jauss, horizon of expectations, Lolita, modernism, Ralph Ellison, reception theory, Richard Wright, social protest novel, Vladimir Nabokov Comments closed
