Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-l7hp2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T15:01:47.790Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Chapter 24 - Beyond Raglan’s Hero: Ellison’s Ritualist Influences

from Part III - Literary and Critical Contexts

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 January 2022

By
Bryan Crable
Edited by
Paul Devlin
Paul Devlin
Affiliation:
United States Merchant Marine Academy, New York
Get access

Summary

Scholars have long recognized the influence of the Cambridge Ritualists (the “myth and ritual school”) on Ralph Ellison’s life and work. Primarily, given Ellison’s many statements regarding the birth of Invisible Man, this has been limited to discussions of Ellison’s use of Lord Raglan’s The Hero. However, archival research in Ellison’s collected papers and preserved library reveals a much more complex portrait of Ellison’s reading of the Ritualists. In this chapter, I draw on this archival evidence to reconstruct the significant insights that Ellison drew from Raglan (and not just The Hero), Jane Harrison, George Thomson, and A. M. Hocart.

Keywords

Ralph EllisonCambridge RitualistsJane Ellen HarrisonA.M. Hocart
Type
Chapter
Information
Ralph Ellison in Context , pp. 260 - 269
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×