That's a pejorative term in critical circles now: if a work of art has any political influence in it somehow it's tainted" (Toni Morrison). Discuss the nature of what you consider to be the "political thrust" in any two works studied on the module.
The novel Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison is, in its entirety, a political text. Based in America in a time of extreme confusion for the Black American, still living under the control of segregation but no longer slaves: the movement for equality of the Negro was in its infancy, the country was flooded with a overabundance of labour in the form of free and freed slaves, and all over the states Jim Crow laws prevailed, segregating every public place and utility, the novel draws attention to the of the black individual in society. The narrator is set, symbolically, as a black person in front of a backdrop of thousands of lights; he could not stand out more obviously in visual sense. The narrator remains nameless so increasing our sense of invisibility and he suffers racism and contempt from white and black people. He is only treated well by the communist element in his society, people who are also feared and reviled by the average American as the Red threat. Ralph Ellison makes the reader aware of the injustices and irrationality of racism. The prologue is not the narrator but Ellison "I am an invisible man" (Ellison, Ralph. Invisible Man. p.3) is the opening of the novel. The reader is immediately aware that what follows is a first-person narrative and that the eponymous invisibility is extremely important. The narrator, who is never .
named, explains that this invisibility is not literal but metaphorical or symbolic. I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me" (ibid. p.3) He explains this assertion in this way "when they approach me they see only my surroundings, themselves, or figments of their imagination. (ibid.p.3).
In the book, The Bluest Eye, Toni Morrison gets across very powerful ideas about American society of the day, these ideas have endured even until today giving the novel a timeless quality.
