Beyond Trope and Into Speculative Space: The Music of Ralph Ellison, Toni Morrison, and Nasir “Nas” Jones

Abstract

Beyond Trope and Into Speculative Space: The Music of Ralph Ellison, Toni Morrison, and Nasir “Nas” Jones attempts to examine authorial use of musical and literary tropes to clarify how characters enter a state of introspection. In this state, I argue protagonists can reflect on their existence, enabling them to adjust to or resist societal constraints. This dissertation is therefore about the advantages of speculative space as a site of transformation and world building. Beyond Trope and Into Speculative Space relies on literary examples of musically infused literature as a reflection of African American oral tradition. I focus on Ralph Ellison, Toni Morrison, and Nasir Jones’ work because their literature and poetry offer a summation of the entanglement of musical and literary genres in African American literature throughout the 20th century. The authors of the texts in Beyond Trope and into Speculative Space draw on blues, jazz, and hip-hop archetypes and tropes to unveil a phantasmic realm that reflects the interiority of black life, guiding readers in conceptualizing an aesthetic world where trauma is navigable. The Great Migration and its legacy serve as a through line of the dissertation, revealing circumstances that Nas refers to as illmatic. Together, the work of Ellison, Morrison, and Nas reveals the interplay of music, literature, identity and memory. As they conflate time and space through their protagonists’ entry into speculative space, readers are afforded an opportunity to sonically travel too. This way of reading offers a variety of benefits, chief among them is the ability to engage with the full emotional and psychological landscapes of characters.