Constructing Mark Twain: New Directions in ScholarshipMichael J. Kiskis, Laura E. Skandera-Trombley University of Missouri Press, 2001 - 252 pages 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. |
From inside the book
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... present are constantly brought face to face, resulting in contrasts which newly fire up the interest all along, like contact of flint with steel" (AU, 3). The contact that Clemens generated as he composed his fiction. 3. Lewis, The ...
... present in the historical Clemens (which becomes at times a quest like that for the historical Jesus) or whether it is a product of the critical interpretations handed down to us in an ongoing attempt to atomize a complex personality ...
... present circumstances, circumstances that contained a "darkening vision of human nature." Twain's later writings are also featured in Jennifer L. Zaccara's "Mark Twain, Isabel Lyon, and the 'Talking Cure': Negotiating Nostalgia and ...
... present in Twain scholarship (the metaphor of twinness comes immediately to mind). Bird's intention is to predict the future direction of Twain studies by revealing "some of its distortions, past and present." Finally, a direct reply to ...
... presents a haunting picture ofan abduction, frequent cowhidings andbeatings ("But by-and-by pap got too handy with his hick'ry, and I couldn't stand it. I was all over welts"), psychological abuse, and, most troubling of all, attempted ...
Contents
13 | |
29 | |
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 | 123 |
Huck Jim and the BlackandWhite Fallacy | 139 |
Black Genes and White Lies | 169 |
Mark Twain in Large and Small | 193 |
JOHN BIRD | 206 |
WORKS CITED | 227 |
INDEX | 243 |