Unit 5: Invisibility and Power

Summary and Purpose of Unit

This unit challenges students to examine the complex relationship between identity, power, and societal structures through Ralph Ellison's groundbreaking novel Invisible Man. Through the intersecting lenses of psychology, Critical Race Theory, and post-structuralist philosophy, students will explore how race, surveillance, and systemic oppression shape both visibility and self-perception. Ellison's novel serves as both a psychological journey and a political critique, offering insight into the ways individuals navigate—and resist—societal expectations and historical constructs.

Advanced students may engage with Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë as an optional parallel text, applying similar frameworks to interrogate gendered identity, power, and societal control. Throughout this unit, students will deepen their understanding of character development, narrative structure, and the philosophical underpinnings of power as preparation for advanced rhetorical analysis in subsequent coursework.

Learning Objectives

• Analyze how systemic structures of race, power, and surveillance influence identity and self-perception.

• Apply Critical Race Theory, psychological analysis, and post-structuralist philosophy to literature.

• Evaluate narrative structure, character motivation, and authorial intent as reflections of historical and social constructs.

Key Graded Assignments

Reading Log: Ongoing reflective and analytical journal connecting personal insight, literary devices, and critical theory to Invisible Man.

Sticky-Note Annotations (Invisible Man): Students annotate key passages with questions, observations, and theoretical applications.

Timed-Writing Exam (Literary Analysis): In-class essay applying critical lenses to examine themes of identity, power, and social constructs.

Text Bank

👉 Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë

Selections from The Federalist Papers

👉 = Required Reading

Ancillary Materials

👉 Foucault: Crime, Police, & Power | Philosophy Tube (Link)

👉 Foucault 2: Government Surveillance & Prison | Philosophy Tube (Link)

👉 "Panopticism" from Discipline and Punish by Foucault (1975) (Link)

RALPH ELLISON In His Own Words, Interview (Link)

Invisible Man: Crash Course Literature 308 (Link)

👉 Invisible Man: Gordon Parks and Ralph Ellison in Harlem (Link)

Gordon Parks Interprets Ralph Ellison's "Invisible Man" | UNIQLO ARTSPEAKS (Link)

Harlem Is Nowhere by Ralph Ellison (Link)

Cultural Collision and Consequence: Redefining the Invisible in

Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man by Nina Shari Kidd (Link)

Ralph Ellison and the Metaphor of Invisibility in Black Literary Tradition by Lieber (Link)

CRT

👉 Critical race theory: Experts break down what it actually means (Link)

👉 African American Criticism by Tyson (Link)

What Critical Race Theory Actually Is — and Isn't by historian and author Ibram X. Kendi (Link)

👉 The urgency of intersectionality | Kimberlé Crenshaw | TED (Link)

👉 Cornel West Explains Critical Race Theory (Link)

Critical Race Theory: The Key Writings That Formed the Movement (Link)

Introduction (Link)

White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard to Talk to White People About Racism by Dr. Robin DiAngelo (Link)

Cheat Sheet: What Is White Fragility? | Baratunde Thurston (Link)

Alt-Right View of CRT

Tretyak's Note: I find these videos to be highly problematic, often molding and cherry picking historical details in a façade of academia; they are not taking into account actual contexts, goals, etc. However, I want to make sure we have an opportunity to discuss why these are inaccurate and how to address and navigate arguments formatted in this manner.

Critical Race Theory Explained by an Alt-Right Group (Link)

The Roots of Critical Race Theory | Jordan Peterson (Link)

"On Invisibility and the Black Experience" — JSTOR Daily — Analysis connecting Ellison to ongoing social realities

"Feminist and Post-Structuralist Readings of Jane Eyre" — British Library — Gender, identity, and social control in Brontë’s novel