Mark Twain on the Loose

A Comic Writer and the American Self

von Bruce Michelson

280 Seiten, Taschenbuch

Kurzbeschreibung des Verlags

Can we rediscover the wildness in Mark Twain's humor? Can we understand how that wildness helped make him a national legend and a key figure in the expression of an American self? Bruce Michelson writes about Twain as a body of literature, as a public personality, and as a myth. He shows that many of Twain's most ambitious and memorable works, from the very beginning to the end of his career, express a drive for absolute liberation from every social, psychological, and artistic limit.

The outrageous and anarchic sides of Twain play a vital role in his art. But these traits are undervalued even by his admirers, who often favor clean shapes and steady affirmations in Twain's writing - not the dangerous comic outbreak, or the deep yearning to free the self from every definition and confinement.

Reviewing works from a wide range of Twain's writings, Michelson brings to light those wild dimensions, their literary consequences, and their cultural importance.

• Reihe: UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS PRESS
• ISBN: 9780870239670
• Sprache: Englisch
• Erscheinungsdatum: 25.04.1995
• Größe: 235 x 153 mm
• Verlag: Univ of Chicago behalf of University of Mass