The Dream of the Iron Groom: The Construction and Function of a Symbol in Ralph Ellison’s Unfinished Novel.
Dreams are a central feature of the extended realism of Ralph Ellison’s second novel, some drafts of which have been published as Three Days Before the Shooting . . . . In this novel, dreams help Ellison’s characters realize or present truths that cannot be presented in the language of straightforwa...
| Publicado en: | Wenshan Review of Literature & Culture Vol. 17; no. 2; pp. 1 - 41 |
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| Formato: | Artículo |
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National Chengchi University, Department of English
Jun2024
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| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=hlh&AN=178364129&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: hlh uiTerm: 178364129 longDbName: Humanities International Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 20771282 KVUO jtl: Wenshan Review of Literature & Culture issn: 20771282 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Jun2024 vid: 17 iid: 2 pid: 21485 pub: National Chengchi University, Department of English artinfo: ui: 178364129 10.30395/WSR.202406_17(2).0003 ppf: 1 ppct: 40 formats: fmt: @attributes: type: P size: 7.5MB tig: atl: The Dream of the Iron Groom: The Construction and Function of a Symbol in Ralph Ellison’s Unfinished Novel. aug: au: Dennen, David affil: Assistant Professor, Department of Applied English, Chihlee University of Technology, Taiwan. su: Ellison, Ralph, 1914-1994 Dreams Iron Social criticism Stereotypes Signs & symbols Racial identity of Black people sug: subj: Ellison, Ralph, 1914-1994 Dreams Iron Social criticism Stereotypes Signs & symbols Racial identity of Black people keyword: dreams extended realism race Ralph Ellison stereotypes symbols Three Days Before the Shooting . . . tragicomedy ab: Dreams are a central feature of the extended realism of Ralph Ellison’s second novel, some drafts of which have been published as Three Days Before the Shooting . . . . In this novel, dreams help Ellison’s characters realize or present truths that cannot be presented in the language of straightforward realism. In a quasi- Freudian manner, Ellison’s dream narrations reveal his characters’ and novels’ most fundamental preoccupations. In this article I analyze part of a dream sequence from Book I of Three Days. This dream, had by a white liberal character, is centered on the figure of an iron groom (or hitching-post boy) who cannot be removed from the doorway to a house. I analyze the construction and function of this dream figure and narrative through the lens of (1) Ellison’s ritualist social criticism, (2) his extended-realist, tragicomic, and syncretic aesthetics, and (3) his allusive and narrative poiesis. The iron groom is constructed as a stereotype of blackness, linked to the major black characters of the novel and to figures in Ellison’s first novel. The groom-as-stereotype is subverted through verbal “signifying” and through the development of a tragicomic narrative rhythm. The dream functions to excavate the dreamer’s (and possibly the reader’s) “self-concealed racism” and to point the way toward what Ellison has called “the mystery of our unity-within- diversity.” pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: Y custom: Copyright of Wenshan Review of Literature & Culture is the property of National Chengchi University, Department of English and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. item: Wenshan Review of Literature & Culture holder: National Chengchi University, Department of English dt: @attributes: year: 2024 holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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