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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... look on with a mixture of awe and chagrin. Clemens himself tried to ex- plain his staying power by claiming that his books were not fine wine for the elite but clear water for the common reader; "everybody," he wrote, "likes water."2 As ...
... looks not only for the major terms of discourse, but also for major pairs of opposed terms which, by their very opposition, carry discourse forward. The historian looks, too, for the coloration or discoloration of ideas received from ...
... looks to the imagination and metaphor building that critics have undertaken as he revisits the book - length critical studies published over the past ten years . He relies on the theories of Colin Turbayne and Roman Jakobson to assist ...
... look toAdventures of Huckleberry Finn, "The Death of Jean," and the Autobiography. My experience as a reader of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn during the past fifteen years has introduced me to a variety of critical judgments rang- ing ...
... look into the dark corners of human life and paint a picture that may , in fact , be more accurate in 2000 than it was in 1886 or 1846 . Clearly , just as the increased consciousness of civil rights since the 1950s inspired readers to ...
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 |