Prophets of Recognition: Ideology and the Individual in Novels by Ralph Ellison, Toni Morrison, Saul Bellow and Eudora Welty »

Prophets of Recognition considers four well-known post-World War II American novels - Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man, Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye, Saul Bellow's Seize the Day, and Eudora Welty's The Optimist's Daughter - from an innovative perspective. According to Julia Eichelberger, though these novels represent diverse writers and experiences, they reflect a similar conception of the individual's relationship to modern American society.. "In each novel, individuals seek a place within a public world, demonstrating what Eichelberger terms "suspicious humanism," a philosophy that acknowledges the power of a person to resist dehumanizing cultural beliefs and to recognize his own innate human value. This ideal form of democracy Eichelberger calls "recognition," and she maintains that each novel champions it at least implicitly by employing actions and social structures that accord the characters an inherent value rather than requiring them to attain relative value within the social hierarchy.. "Eichelberger's application of critical theory to interpretative analysis illumines the novels under discussion and shows as well the relevance of individual/societal tension to other American fiction of the period. By identifying a shared vision of democracy, ideology, and the individual in works that cross lines of race, ethnicity, gender, and region, she helps identify what is American about American literature.