Simon Fraser University
Engaging the World

Course Outlines

Fall 2025 - ENGL 437W D100

Seminar in American Literatures (4)

Invisible Man and the Occasion of Criticism

Class Number: 3034

Delivery Method: In Person

Overview

  • Course Times + Location:

    Sep 3 – Dec 2, 2025: Tue, Thu, 10:30 a.m.–12:20 p.m.
    Burnaby

  • Prerequisites:

    45 units or two 300-division English courses.

Description

CALENDAR DESCRIPTION:

Advanced seminar in American literature. May be organized by author, genre, period, or critical approach. This course may be repeated for credit if a different topic is taught. Writing.

COURSE DETAILS:

Invisible Man and the Occasion of Criticism

Whenever someone makes a list of Greatest American Novels, Ralph Ellison’s 1952 masterpiece Invisible Man sits at or near the top of it.  Yet critics disagree, sometimes vehemently, about why it’s great and even what it’s saying.  Is it a Jim Crow period piece that became irrelevant with the passage of Brown v. Board, or a timeless American classic?  Is it a work of Cold War anti-Communism, or a subversively leftist novel?  An example of late modernism or early postmodernism?  Should one read it as primarily in dialogue with Black nationalism, diasporic Black identity, or a specifically Black Southern literary tradition?  Should one read it in dialogue with its many white influences, from Dostoevsky to Faulkner and Hemingway?  Is it the last great jazz novel or the founding text of Afrosurrealism?  Unsurprisingly, our answer to nearly all these questions will likely be a resounding Yes.

In this course, we’ll spend about the first half of the trimester close-reading Invisible Man, and the second half doing a deep dive into the criticism of the novel, using Kenneth W. Warren’s 2004 study So Black and Blue: Ralph Ellison and the Occasion of Criticism as our guide.  Since perhaps Ellison’s central theme is the unacknowledged centrality of Blackness to American identity—arguably the single biggest difference between Canadian and American culture—we’ll spend considerable time pondering, with Ellison and his critics, questions of American and African American identity.  And because African American studies remains the first, largest, and by far the most influential body of work on race in North America, we’ll consider what the novel and its critics might have to tell us about the performances and demands of racialized identities in Canada as well.  More broadly, we'll investigate the ideological demands, often identitarian, that critics make of a text, a propensity that arguably has only gotten stronger in our own century.

Grading

  • 3 in-class writing assignments, 5% each 15%
  • Discussion questions on Canvas 15%
  • Attendance and participation 10%
  • Final paper proposal 5%
  • Final paper draft (12pp) 15%
  • Final paper revision (12pp) 20%
  • Presentation: close reading of one primary passage 10%
  • Presentation on one secondary source 10%

Materials

REQUIRED READING:

Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man.  2nd ed.  Vintage, 1995.  ISBN 978-0679732761

Kenneth W. Warren, So Black and Blue: Ralph Ellison and the Occasion of Criticism.  U of Chicago P, 2004.  ISBN 978-0226873800

John F. Callahan, ed.  Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man: A Casebook.  Oxford UP, 2004.  ISBN 978-0195145366

REQUIRED READING NOTES:

Your personalized Course Material list, including digital and physical textbooks, are available through the SFU Bookstore website by simply entering your Computing ID at: shop.sfu.ca/course-materials/my-personalized-course-materials.

Department Undergraduate Notes:

IMPORTANT NOTE Re 300 and 400 level courses: 75% of spaces in 300 level English courses, and 100% of spaces in 400 level English courses, are reserved for declared English Major, Minor, Extended Minor, Joint Major, and Honours students only, until open enrollment begins.

For all On-Campus Courses, please note the following:
- To receive credit for the course, students must complete all requirements.
- Tutorials/Seminars WILL be held the first week of classes.
- When choosing your schedule, remember to check "Show lab/tutorial sections" to see all Lecture/Seminar/Tutorial times required.

Registrar Notes:

ACADEMIC INTEGRITY: YOUR WORK, YOUR SUCCESS

At SFU, you are expected to act honestly and responsibly in all your academic work. Cheating, plagiarism, or any other form of academic dishonesty harms your own learning, undermines the efforts of your classmates who pursue their studies honestly, and goes against the core values of the university.

To learn more about the academic disciplinary process and relevant academic supports, visit: 


RELIGIOUS ACCOMMODATION

Students with a faith background who may need accommodations during the term are encouraged to assess their needs as soon as possible and review the Multifaith religious accommodations website. The page outlines ways they begin working toward an accommodation and ensure solutions can be reached in a timely fashion.