Constructing Mark Twain: New Directions in ScholarshipMichael J. Kiskis, Laura E. Skandera-Trombley University of Missouri Press, 2001 - 252 Seiten The thirteen essays in this collection combine to offer a complex and deeply nuanced picture of Samuel Clemens. With the purpose of straying from the usual notions of Clemens (most notably the Clemens/Twain split that has ruled Twain scholarship for over thirty years), the editors have assembled contributions from a wide range of Twain scholars. As a whole, the collection argues that it is time we approach Clemens not as a shadow behind the literary persona but as a complex and intricate creator of stories, a creator who is deeply embedded in the political events of his time and who used a mix of literary, social, and personal experience to fuel the movements of his pen. The essays illuminate Clemens's connections with people and events not usually given the spotlight and introduce us to Clemens as a man deeply embroiled in the process of making literary gold out of everyday experiences. From Clemens's wonderings on race and identity to his looking to family and domesticity as defining experiences, from musings on the language that Clemens used so effectively to consideration of the images and processes of composition, these essays challenge long-held notions of why Clemens was so successful and so influential a writer. While that search itself is not new, the varied approaches within this collection highlight markedly inventive ways of reading the life and work of Samuel Clemens. |
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... generated as he composed his fiction. 3. Lewis, The American Adam: Innocence, Tragedy, and Tradition in the Nineteenth Cen- tury, 2. 4. Skandera Trombley, Mark Twain in the Company of Women. 4 Laura E. Skandera Trombley and Michael J.
... fiction of the nineteenth century. Still another exam- ple is the dominance of the Clemens-Twain personality split in the critical tradition. Biographers have long accepted the notion of a division within Clemens—the question, once ...
... fiction , especially the question of how to teach morality — by the voice of authority or by the resilience of tradition . In Adventures of Huckleberry Finn the debate is manifest in the conflict between the narrow blasts of Miss Watson ...
... fiction—the gift of death. It is, after all, the feigned death that allows Huck to escape an abusive and homicidal father; it is the release for Joan of Arc; it is the gift that Satan brings in "The Mysterious Stranger." Death prompts ...
... fiction in the McWilliams short stories , the animal tales , the stories of the good and bad boys ; and the anecdotes that creep into his speeches and his autobiography . This argues for complexity ; however , we often continue to focus ...
Inhalt
13 | |
28 | |
To his preferred friends he revealed his true character | 50 |
Mark Twains Mechanical Marvels | 72 |
Steamboats Cocaine and Paper Money | 87 |
Mark Twain Isabel Lyon and the Talking Cure | 101 |
The Minstrel and the Detective | 122 |
Huck Jim and the BlackandWhite Fallacy | 139 |
Black Genes and White Lies | 169 |
Mark Twain in Large and Small | 191 |
Who Killed Mark Twain? Long Live Samuel Clemens | 218 |
CONTRIBUTORS | 239 |