In the posthumously published Three Days before the Shooting . . . (2010), Ralph Ellison’s protagonist spends years as a film actor and filmmaker, and cinematographic effects appear throughout the narrative. Sharply aware of what he called the “enormous myth-making potential of the film form,” Ellison sought in this second novel both to explore the artistic possibilities of film and to expose the dangers of this potent medium. This essay examines three interrelated ways that movies matter to Ellison’s literary experiments. First, it argues that Ellison’s ambivalence about the American movie industry correlates with both his technological savvy and his sociopolitical conservativism in the latter half of his writing career. Second, it shows how Ellison’s fascinations with cinematic effects shape the aesthetics and themes of his unfinished second novel. Finally, the article demonstrates how Ellison’s specific techniques in representing cinematic experience exemplify, ironically, his primary allegiance to literary narrative.
Skip Nav Destination
Article navigation
Research Article|
September 01 2020
Film in Ralph Ellison’s Three Days Before the Shooting . . .
Elizabeth Yukins
Elizabeth Yukins
Elizabeth Yukins is assistant professor in the English Department at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, CUNY. She specializes in twentieth- and twenty-first-century African American literature, with particular interests in gender studies and law and literature. Her work has appeared in Signs, Modern Fiction Studies, and PMLA.
Search for other works by this author on:
Twentieth-Century Literature (2020) 66 (3): 333–360.
Citation
Elizabeth Yukins; Film in Ralph Ellison’s Three Days Before the Shooting . . .. Twentieth-Century Literature 1 September 2020; 66 (3): 333–360. doi: https://doi.org/10.1215/0041462X-8646874
Download citation file:
Advertisement