The Creation of Nation and Culture: Hypotheses on Nationalism and the Work of Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man

Abstract

The nationalist theories of Benedict Anderson, Rogers Brubaker, Hugh Seton-Watson and others suppose that nationalist politics are a response to environmental adversity and that nationalist discourses are subject to construction and negotiation within media such as journalism and literature. This paper 1) Supposes a set of hypotheses on nationalism stemming from the work of Anderson, Seton-Watson, and Brubaker, and 2) Examines the emergence of nationalist discourse and political negotiation in Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man as evidence of this process of imagining and directing the nation in the context of the development of civil and legal equality for black Americans.