The Search For Identity Under Oppression in Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man (1952) andBen Okri’s The Famished Road (1991)
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Date
2025
Authors
Oualli Zineb
Oulagha Radia
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Université Mouloud Mammeri Tizi Ouzou
Abstract
This dissertation explores how identity forms and resistance emerges in Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man (1952) and Ben Okri’s The Famished Road (1991) .Using Frantz Fanon’s postcolonial theory to show how race, power, and selfhood intersect in a postcolonial Nigeria and a racially divided America. The study compares how the main characters face systemic exclusion, using storytelling, myths, and symbols to challenge colonial and racial identities. Drawing on Fanon’s ideas about alienation, reclaiming culture, and liberating consciousness, the dissertation looks at both personal and collective ways people respond to oppression. Through close reading and theoretical insight, it reveals how both novels resist dominant power structures and offer new ways to see agency and identity. This work adds to postcolonial and African American literary studies by affirming the power of narrative in reshaping identity amid histories of oppression.
Description
59p. : (+CD-Rom)
Keywords
Identity, Resistance, Postcolonialism, Fanon, Race, Alienation, Narrative, Liberation, Myth
Citation
Comparative Literature