Ralph Ellison Website EvaluatorsRod Cameron - Abraham Lincoln High School, Iowa
Melissa Howlett - University of Indianapolis, Indiana Website Reviewer and Compiler
Charles R. Sanders - San Pedro High School, California Site Ratings 1 = Poor 2 = Fair 3 = Good 4 = Excellent Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man
http://www.wshs.fcps.k12.va.us/projects/im98/im98.htm Three English classes at West Springfield High School in Virginia have developed three
excellent Web pages on Ralph Ellison and his novel, Invisible Man, as class projects. Each page includes chapter summaries of Invisible Man
with analyses of characters, symbols, motifs and quotations, "ancillary topics such as jazz and social studies relevant to the period, biographical information on Ellison," and several pertinent links. This site would be a great model for a similar class project.
Overall Rating: 4Barron's Booknotes on Invisible Man
http://www.it.cc.mn.us/literature/invisible.html
"This is a complete and thorough website for teaching Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man." Included here are pages on "biographical information, chapter summaries, critical commentary on characters, and
themes." Teachers should be aware that the site "contains so much information…students could literally read the website in lieu of the novel." This is an "excellent source of information for the
instructor who is teaching Ellison for the first time…and has limited prep time."
Overall Rating: 3DISSENT: Decoding Ralph Ellison
http://www.igc.org/dissent/archive/summer97/early.html Often overlooked or omitted in any biographical study of Ralph Ellison is a discussion of
the myth "that he published only one book, and that his entire authority as a writer and intellectual rests on this one work." Gerald Early, writing in Dissent magazine in 1997, does a fine job of
exploding this myth by showing the "historical importance" of Ellison's Flying Home and Other Stories, a collection of most of his pre-Invisible Man fiction, and two collections of essays:
Shadow and Act and Going to the Territory, which "set forth his views as a literary critic and public intellectual." Also included is a fascinating discussion about Ellison's relationship with his
good friend Richard Wright and many other facts not usually found in other studies of Ellison.
Overall Rating: 3Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man
http://www.english.ucla.edu/read98 Each year the UCLA English Department selects a novel with a "vivid and compelling" plot for a marathon reading. The choice for 1998 was Ralph Ellison's
Invisible Man. Although the home page focuses on the marathon, it does contain several "excellent links" which are "well worth the reader's time and effort." Included are "summaries of
Invisible Man, criticism, background on the Harlem Renaissance, jazz of the 1930s, and photos of the period." The site is well suited in content for high school or college students."
Overall Rating: 3
Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man
http://www.english.upenn.edu/~afilreis/50s/ellison-main.html
For students doing "advanced work" on Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man, this site has value because of the "manner in which Ellison's themes and concepts are viewed via their social/cultural
implications." Included are "four critical essays on Ellison's book, chapter summaries, and a reading list on Ellison." Perhaps of greater interest to scholars is "the outstanding list of links
available," featuring "pertinent discussions of Ellison's use of communism, repression, the African American community's values,…and the narrator's invisibility."
Overall Rating: 3Man Underground
http://wsrv.clas.virginia.edu/~tsawyer/DRBR/bellow.0.html From Commentary
magazine comes this 1952 review by Saul Bellow of Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man. High school students may find the text, which is a bit prosaic and somewhat "out-dated," difficult to read, but
"college students will appreciate it" as a "wonderful example of a literary review as opposed to a critical essay." Instructors could "incorporate the issue of how the book was viewed and
received at the time of publication."
Overall Rating: 2Obituary: Invincible Man Ralph Ellison
http://cgi.pathfinder.com/time/magazine/archive/1994/940425/940425.obituary.html Ralph Ellison's obituary, from Time magazine in 1994, is
interesting in its evaluation of "his impact upon literary and social trends which provided the context for his work." Students researching the author's life may find this retrospective "interesting and
useful."
Overall Rating: 2Ralph Ellison Page
http://www.accd.edu/sac/english/bailey/ellisonr.htm From the African American
Literature page of the San Antonio College Lit Web comes this collection of links pertaining to Ralph Ellison. After a list of Ellison's works, the reader is invited to visit links that present "chapter summaries,
reviews,…and critical essays." Some of the essays are "highly critical of Ellison's work" and may be of interest to writers wishing to "keep abreast of critical viewpoints on Invisible Man
or Ralph Ellison prior to writing."
Overall Rating: 2 |
