“Naw You Ain’t No Man”: Rereading the Patriarchal Phallocentrism in the Trueblood Episode of Ellison’s Invisible Man
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In The Critical Response to Ralph Ellison, Robert J. Butler ends his overview of Invisible Man’s critical reception by stating, “Certainly much more needs to be said about Ellison’s envisioning of female experience and how feminine values are an important part of his vision” (xxxvii). Much more needs to be said because Ellison’s stance on the experiences of females has not been so clear, especially in his epic novel, Invisible Man. The question remains: Is Ellison’s widely-read novel a critique of sexism in America or is the novel itself deeply marred by it? This article revisits the second chapter of Invisible Man ― the “Trueblood episode” ― to argue that Ellison has Jim Trueblood fashion a crude story of father-daughter incest to combat the impotence brought on by a white male supremacist society that bonds together over racism. Although many have correctly claimed that Trueblood’s tall tale is told at the expense of his daughter, who, like most of the female characters in the book, is denied complexity and humanity, this article argues that Ellison’s chapter subtly challenges patriarchal phallocentrism by hinting at a proto-feminist message in suggesting what some feminists would later claim ― that father-daughter incest is a normal function of heteropatriarchy, not a breakdown in the social order.
Abstract
In The Critical Response to Ralph Ellison, Robert J. Butler ends his overview of Invisible Man’s critical reception by stating, “Certainly much more needs to be said about Ellison’s envisioning of female experience and how feminine values are an important part of his vision” (xxxvii). Much more needs to be said because Ellison’s stance on the experiences of females has not been so clear, especially in his epic novel, Invisible Man. The question remains: Is Ellison’s widely-read novel a critique of sexism in America or is the novel itself deeply marred by it? This article revisits the second chapter of Invisible Man ― the “Trueblood episode” ― to argue that Ellison has Jim Trueblood fashion a crude story of father-daughter incest to combat the impotence brought on by a white male supremacist society that bonds together over racism. Although many have correctly claimed that Trueblood’s tall tale is told at the expense of his daughter, who, like most of the female characters in the book, is denied complexity and humanity, this article argues that Ellison’s chapter subtly challenges patriarchal phallocentrism by hinting at a proto-feminist message in suggesting what some feminists would later claim ― that father-daughter incest is a normal function of heteropatriarchy, not a breakdown in the social order.
참고문헌 (22)
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