“Trying to Blow All Life Through a Brass Trombone”: Ralph Ellison Preaches the Blues

摘要

Not only does Ralph Ellison's writing reflect his background as a musician who played European classics and Southwestern blues-based jazz, and whose fiction reflect the aesthetics of these worlds, but also his work reveals a vital connection to religion. It is O'Meally's contention that Ellison viewed the Negro spiritual and sermon, with their frequent namings of the troubles of the world, as never more than two steps from the blues—Ellsion's model and metaphor for American culture. Ellision blended the two forms in an aesthetic and philosophy of transcendence that needed both to ring true. The spiritual dimension that always underlies his project as a writer is explored and developed.