MARK TWAIN, CULTURE AND GENDER by J. D. Stahl ( 9780820315591 )

Item Details

Title:

MARK TWAIN, CULTURE AND GENDER
ENVISIONING AMERICA THROUGH EUROPE

By:

Format:

Hardback

List price:	£42.95
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ISBN 10:

0820315591

ISBN 13:

9780820315591

Publisher:

UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA PRESS

Pub. date:

1 January, 1994

Pages:

216

Description:

Stahl looks at various Twain works with European settings and traces the manner in which he redefined European notions of class into American concepts of gender, identity, and society.

Synopsis:

Often regarded as the quintessential American author, Mark Twain in fact mined his knowledge and experience of Europe as assiduously as he did his adventures on the Mississippi and in the American West. In this challenging study, J.D. Stahl looks closely at various Twain works with European settings and traces the manner in which the writer redefined European notions of class into American concepts of gender, identity, and society. Stahl not only examines such writings as "The Innocents Abroad", "The Prince and the Pauper", "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court", and the "Mysterious Stranger" manuscripts but also treats a number of neglected works, including 1601, "A Memorable Midnight Experience," and "Personal Recollection of Joan of Arc". In these writings, Stahl suggests, Twain utilised the terms and symbols of European society and history to express his deepest concerns involving father-son relationships, the legitimation of parentage, female political and sexual power, the victimisation of "good" women, and, ultimately, the desire to bridge or even destroy the barriers between the sexes.The "exoticism" of foreign culture - with its kings and queens, priests, and aristocrats - furnished Twain with some especially potent images of power, authority, and tradition. These images, Stahl argues, were "plastic material in Mark Twain's hands," enabling the writer to explore the uncertainties and ambiguities of gender in America: what it meant to be a man in Victorian America; what Twain thought it meant to be a woman; how men and women did, could, and should relate to each other. Stahl's approach offers insights into Twain's work. In discussing "The Innocents Abroad", for example, he analyses the emergence of the "Mark Twain" persona as part of a quest for cultural authority that often took the form of sexual role-playing. He also demonstrates that "The Prince and the Pauper", even more strikingly than "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn", embodies the writier's central myth of orphaned sons searching for surrogate fathers. His reading of "A Connecticut Yankee" uncovers the psychological contradictions in Twain's political aspirations towards democratic equality.Stahl's book offers a contribution to literary scholarship, informed by psychology, gender study, cultural theory, and traditional Twain criticism. It confirms Mark Twain's debt to European culture even as it illuminates his re-envisioning of that culture in his own uniquely American way.

Publication:

Imprint:

University of Georgia Press

Returns:

Returnable

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CROSSCURRENTS OF CHILDREN'S LITERATURE (PB)

MARK TWAIN, CULTURE AND GENDER (PB)