Offering students and scholars a variety of interpretations from which to fashion their own views of the novel and the man who created it, this text takes the position that there can be no last word on "Invisible Man". The essays share a respect for the novel's fluidity and for every reader's encounter with its narrator, story, and meanings. Introduction 3(23) John F. Callahan Part I Prologue: Ralph Ellison on Invisible Man Before Publication 23(12) After Publication 35(30) Part II Critical Essays on Invisible Man Ralph Ellison's Trueblooded Bildungsroman 65(16) Kenneth Burke Ellison's Zoot Suit 81(28) Larry Neal Ellison's Vision of Communitas 109(16) Nathan A. Scott, Jr. Ralph Ellison, Race, and American Culture 125(24) Morris Dickstein The Rules of Magic: Hemingway as Ellison's ``Ancestor'' 149(40) Robert G. O'Meally The Meaning of Narration in Invisible Man 189(32) Valerie Smith The Conscious Hero and the Rites of Man: Ellison's War 221(32) John S. Wright Notes on the Invisible Women in Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man 253(14) Claudia Tate Luminosity from the Lower Frequencies 267(20) Leon Forrest Ellison's Invisible Man 287(36) John F. Callahan Part III Epilogue On Initiation Rites and Power: A Lecture at West Point 323(22) Ralph Ellison Selected Bibliography 345