Judith Yaross Lee
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- March 2014
- ISBN:
- 9781617036439
- eISBN:
- 9781621030577
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781617036439.003.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, American, 19th Century Literature
This chapter shows that, although Mark Twain tops most lists of great American humorists, analyses of his significance treat American culture as if humor were barely part of it. One of the likely ...
More
This chapter shows that, although Mark Twain tops most lists of great American humorists, analyses of his significance treat American culture as if humor were barely part of it. One of the likely reasons for this is the belief that Twain’s humor belongs to a trivial nineteenth-century popular culture of dialect writing, hoaxes, and tall yarns, while his themes, especially race and politics, belong to the twentieth-century canon of belle lettres. This book shows that Samuel L. Clemens adapted nineteenth-century comic traditions to burgeoning twentieth-century cultural trends in ways that won popular and economic success in his own time, expressed modern views of self and society, and anticipated contemporary American humor and culture in many ways.Less
This chapter shows that, although Mark Twain tops most lists of great American humorists, analyses of his significance treat American culture as if humor were barely part of it. One of the likely reasons for this is the belief that Twain’s humor belongs to a trivial nineteenth-century popular culture of dialect writing, hoaxes, and tall yarns, while his themes, especially race and politics, belong to the twentieth-century canon of belle lettres. This book shows that Samuel L. Clemens adapted nineteenth-century comic traditions to burgeoning twentieth-century cultural trends in ways that won popular and economic success in his own time, expressed modern views of self and society, and anticipated contemporary American humor and culture in many ways.
Judith Yaross Lee
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- March 2014
- ISBN:
- 9781617036439
- eISBN:
- 9781621030577
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781617036439.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, American, 19th Century Literature
Samuel L. Clemens lost the 1882 lawsuit declaring his exclusive right to use “Mark Twain” as a commercial trademark, but he succeeded in the marketplace, where synergy among his comic journalism, ...
More
Samuel L. Clemens lost the 1882 lawsuit declaring his exclusive right to use “Mark Twain” as a commercial trademark, but he succeeded in the marketplace, where synergy among his comic journalism, live performances, authorship, and entrepreneurship made “Mark Twain” the premier national and international brand of American humor in his day. So it remains in ours, because Mark Twain’s humor not only expressed views of self and society well ahead of its time, but also anticipated ways in which humor and culture coalesce in today’s postindustrial information economy—the global trade in media, performances, and other forms of intellectual property that began after the Civil War. This book traces four hallmarks of Twain’s humor that are especially significant today. Mark Twain’s invention of a stage persona comically conflated with his biographical self lives on in contemporary performances by Garrison Keillor, Margaret Cho, Jerry Seinfeld, and Jon Stewart. The postcolonial critique of Britain that underlies America’s nationalist tall tale tradition not only self-destructs in A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court but also drives the critique of American Exceptionalism in Philip Roth’s literary satires. The semi-literate writing that gives Adventures of Huckleberry Finn its “vernacular vision”—wrapping cultural critique in ostensibly innocent transgressions and misunderstandings—has a counterpart in the apparently untutored drawing style and social critique seen in The Simpsons, Lynda Barry’s comics, and The Boondocks.Less
Samuel L. Clemens lost the 1882 lawsuit declaring his exclusive right to use “Mark Twain” as a commercial trademark, but he succeeded in the marketplace, where synergy among his comic journalism, live performances, authorship, and entrepreneurship made “Mark Twain” the premier national and international brand of American humor in his day. So it remains in ours, because Mark Twain’s humor not only expressed views of self and society well ahead of its time, but also anticipated ways in which humor and culture coalesce in today’s postindustrial information economy—the global trade in media, performances, and other forms of intellectual property that began after the Civil War. This book traces four hallmarks of Twain’s humor that are especially significant today. Mark Twain’s invention of a stage persona comically conflated with his biographical self lives on in contemporary performances by Garrison Keillor, Margaret Cho, Jerry Seinfeld, and Jon Stewart. The postcolonial critique of Britain that underlies America’s nationalist tall tale tradition not only self-destructs in A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court but also drives the critique of American Exceptionalism in Philip Roth’s literary satires. The semi-literate writing that gives Adventures of Huckleberry Finn its “vernacular vision”—wrapping cultural critique in ostensibly innocent transgressions and misunderstandings—has a counterpart in the apparently untutored drawing style and social critique seen in The Simpsons, Lynda Barry’s comics, and The Boondocks.
