Metaphor, metonymy and voice in Their Eyes Were Watching God

Abstract

This chapter explores the distinction between folklore and art that is legitimately inferable from Ralph Ellison's critical practice is a distinction that collapses in his creative practice in the Trueblood episode of Invisible Man. It suggests that an exacting analysis of the narrative episode is an enabling condition for comprehending the relationship not only between Ellison's critical and creative practices but also between what might be called the public and private commerce of black art in America. The chapter then demonstrates that sociology, anthropology, economics, politics and ideology all provide models essential for the explication of the Trueblood episode. Additionally, within the novel, the Trueblood episode acts as a metacommentary on the literary and artistic system out of which the novel itself is generated. Functioning as a reflexive story that the author of Invisible Man tells himself about his own practice, the Trueblood episode serves to clarify distinctions that must be made between Ellison as critic and artist.