Volume VI Special Issue II February 2026

Name of Author : Dr.J.Sakthi Kumaar

Title of the paper : From Paper to Pixels: A Study on the Architecture of Erasure and the Documentation of the Self in Ralph Ellisons The Invisible Man

Abstract: Ralph Ellisons Invisible Man 1952 offers a profound exploration of identity formation through the metaphor of documentation and erasure. This article analyzes how Ellison constructs a framework of bureaucratic and social mechanisms that systematically obliterate Black identity while concurrently necessitating its documentation. This study contends that Ellison presages modern anxieties regarding digital identity, surveillance, and the politics of visibility through an examination of the novels engagement with letters, records, names, and testimonies. In modern times, people face a new architecture of erasure the data double, which is a key theme in the novel. This study compares Ellisons metaphors, such as Liberty Paints Optic White and the narrators final briefcase burning, with modern theories like Ruha Benjamins New Jim Code and Safiya Nobles algorithmic bias. The protagonists transformation from a documented subject to a self documenting narrator illustrates the paradox inherent in American racial discourse the concurrent hyper visibility and profound invisibility of Black existence. The paper concludes that although the narrator could incinerate his documents to attain clarity in an underground basement, the 21st century self is ensnared in a perpetual, indomitable digital archive.

Keywords : Documentation, Erasure, Invisibility, Algorithmic Bias, Surveillance, Identity Construction

DOI :

Page Number : 45-49