Twain, Mississippi Writings. Library of America, 1982 (Tom Sawyer, Huck Finn, Life on the Mississippi, and Pudd'nhead Wilson.)
Twain and C.D. Warner, The Gilded Age, 1873. Meridian, 1985.
Twain, King Leopold's Soliloquy, 1905. International, 1961.
Twain, Signet Classic Book of Mark Twain's Short Stories. New American Library, 1985.
photocopy of Twain, Mark. "A Defense of General Funston," in
folder
photocopy of Coleman, Earle. "On the Inseparability of Art and Religion," in
folder
photocopy of biographical chronology, in folder
photocopy of Tolstoy, Leo. What is Art?, Ch. 5, in folder
Twain, Mark. Letters from the Earth. Ed. Bernard DeVoto. Harper, 1962.
Twain, Mark. Fables of Man. Ed. John Tuckey. U of California P, 1972.
DeVoto, Bernard. Mark Twain at Work. Houghton, 1967.
Twain, Mark. Tales, Sketches, Speeches & Essays, Vols. 1 and 2. Library
of America, 1992.
Twain, Mark. A Pen Warmed-Up in Hell: Mark Twain in Protest. Ed. Frederick
Anderson. Harper, 1972. (2 copies)
Twain, Mark. The Complete Essays of Mark Twain. Ed. Charles Neider.
Doubleday, 1963.
French, Bryant Morley. Mark Twain and The Gilded Age. Southern Methodist UP,
1965.
LeMaster and Wilson, eds. The Mark Twain Encyclopedia. Garland, 1993.
Zwick, Jim, ed. Mark Twain's Weapons of Satire: Anti-Imperialist Writings on the
Philippine-American War. Syracuse UP, 1992.
Gillman and Robinson, eds. Mark Twain's Pudd'nhead Wilson: Race, Conflict and
Culture. Duke UP, 1990.
Fishkin, Shelley Fisher. Was Huck Black? Oxford UP, 1993.
Booth, Wayne C. The Company We Keep. U of California P, 1988.
Foner, Philip. Mark Twain, Social Critic. International, 1958.
Budd, Louis. Mark Twain: Social Philosopher. Indiana UP, 1962.
Budd, Louis. Our Mark Twain. Pennsylvania UP, 1983.
Leonard, Davis and Tenney, eds. Satire or Evasion: Black Perspectives on Huckleberry
Finn. Duke UP, 1992.
Gibson, William. The Art of Mark Twain. Oxford UP, 1976.
Gardner, John. On Moral Fiction. Basic. 1977.
Joe David Bellamy, ed. Moral Fiction: An Anthology. Fiction, 1980.
Howells, William Dean and Mark Twain. Mark Twain--Howells Letters, 2 vols.
Harvard UP, 1960.
Grant, Patrick. Literature and Personal Values. St. Martin's, 1992.
Jameson, Fredric. The Political Unconscious: Narrative as a Socially Symbolic Act.
Cornell UP, 1981.
This course is a study of selected long and short fictions spanning Mark Twain's career, including both Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn, and of selected protest writings against capitalism, racism and imperialism. Through an exploration of the issues of satire and morality in art, including censorship and book-banning, we will investigate Twain's role as a "public intellectual."
Class attendance is required; quality of coursework will suffer if classes are missed. Participation in class discussions is strongly encouraged. Missed classes should be explained and, when possible, approved by instructor in advance.
All assigned reading is to be read en toto by the day it is assigned.
Grades will be determined from the midterm paper (±20%), the research paper (±30%), the oral report (±15%) and the comprehensive final (±35%) which is optional (for those not taking it, the 35% it's worth will be prorated for the other three graded assignments), as well as from class participation. The midterm exam will be an out-of-class 2-3 pp. (double-spaced) essay responding to a question on the material in the first half of the course. The final will be composed of a combination of short answer (20%) and essay (80%). A period immediately prior to the exam will be devoted to catch up and review, to pull together any loose ends and to prepare for the exam.
The paper will be a short (4-5 pp.) research study. It may treat a work which is not a required reading on the syllabus, or a work which is on the syllabus. In any case, the work you do will be independent of our class study and will feature your own research. Topics must be discussed and approved by me. Ordinarily the topic and a brief explanation of the central idea of the paper (or a brief outline) will be submitted in writing, with a copy for me to keep so I know what I've approved for you to do. The due date for the paper is Thursday, 7 July.
As a policy, missed work cannot be made up. Exceptions will be made only when in the judgment of the instructor a given set of circumstances warrants a waiver of this policy.