Shadow and Act | Self-Invention and Identity Found in Ellison's Essays
Lynch is a teacher and freelance writer in northern New Mexico. In the following essay, she explores themes of self-invention and identity found in Ellison’s essays.
In his introduction to Shadow and Act, Ellison makes the point that writing is ‘‘the agency of my efforts to answer the question: Who am I, what am I, how did I come to be?’’ When deciding upon a career, he describes wondering ‘‘what was the most desirable agency for defining myself.’’ He goes on to describe the essays in the collection as ‘‘witness of that which I have known and that which I have tried and am still trying to confront.’’ Ellison is preoccupied with identity—American identity, in particular. As he indicates in the introduction, his essays...
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