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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... value — certainly no large value .... However , let it go . It is the will of God that we must have critics , and mission- aries , and congressmen , and humorists , and we must bear the burden . Mark Twain , Mark Twain's Own ...
... value to our own. Critics have not been shy in their attempts to construct, deconstruct, and reconstruct Clemens. He is amazingly plastic, but critics are all too ready to morph him to suit their purposes. They—we—dab him with color and ...
... value as a contributor to American life and culture. He was, in all, a supremely confi- dent author who used the whole range of life as his pallet. We are still com- ing to terms with his range, with the expanse of his thinking and ...
... values accumulated from the society with and within which he traveled. The tension and conversation that resulted from the clash of ideas and perspectives were tinder for the fire of his imagination. And despite the still too often ...
... values. All are surprised by his attachment to his family. For a good long time, Twain scholars, like my students, have been op- erating within exclusionary readings and tightly wrapped and carefully marketed icons. When I was ...
Contents
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 |