DERRIDEAN APORIA AND AMBIGUOUS DISPOSITION OF THE NARRATOR IN RALPH ELLISON'S INVISIBLE MAN (1952)

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to explore and analyze the ambiguous existence of Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man (1952) while keeping in view Jacques Derrida’s Deconstructive term, Aporia. This paper has focused on self, identity, past, present, and socio-cultural influences. Black nameless Narrator wants to be part of self-exploration and self-awareness but according to this Research, his decentralized and disoriented status in postmodern American society where he has been given the advice to run and to escape from his true uniqueness. In this paper, Derridean term, Aporia has been applied to examine his chaotic social and personal existence. This paper has also explored the physical and symbolic invisibility of the narrator and myopic response of society towards him. His invisibility wants to deconstruct the society and his identity but in doing so he fails in his struggle and decides to get hibernate. This paper has tried to trace the deep chasm between the Narrator and the society and tried to explore his ambivalent expression towards blackness and himself.