| Required Texts |
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Mark Twain,
The Innocents Abroad or The New Pilgrims Progress (Penguin)
Roughing It (Mark Twain Library, U Cal)
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (U Cal)
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Norton)
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court (Norton)
Pudd n’head Wilson and Other Tales (Norton)
The Devil’s Race Track (U Cal)
Stephen Railton,
Mark Twain in His Times, website @ UVA.
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| Writing Assignments |
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Exercise 1: “Book Review” or “Imitation” of Innocents Abroad or Roughing It
Exercise 2: Close Reading of Twain’s style, 4-5 p.p.
Exercise 3: Prospectus for final paper, 2 p.p. (posted on Blackboard)
Final Paper: Critical essay that responds to at least three outside sources, 10-12 pp.
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| Course Schedule |
| Week 1 |
Tom Sawyer
Railton: PreTexts, Publicity & Selected Illustrations
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| Week 2 |
Innocents Abroad and selections from Roughing It:
Chapter 1, Dreams & Visions; Chapter 4, At a Station; Chapter 7, Bemis’ Buffalo Hunt; Chapter 12, The South Pass; Chapter 19, The Noble Red Man; Chapter 24, The Mexican Plug; Chapter 47, Scotty Briggs & the Minister; Chapter 53, Jim Blaine & His Grandfather’s Ram; Chapter 54, Chinese Immigration; Chapter 79 Railton: Mapping the West, Lecture Tour Maps & The Savage Tour
Exercise 1: Book Review or Imitation of Innocents or Roughing It
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| Week 3 |
Twain & The East Coast Literary Establishment
“How to tell of Story” & “The Jumping Frog of Calaveras County”
"The Whittier Birthday Dinner Speech" & "Story of a Speech"
Railton: “Mark Twain’s” Voice & His Speeches
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| Week 4 |
Huck Finn
Railton: Pre-texts & Publicity
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| Week 5 |
Huck Finn
Railton: Illustrations & Seeing Jim
Railton: Reviews & Touring With Huck
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| Week 6 |
Huck Finn Discussion: Teaching the Controversy
Essays from the Norton, TBA
Exercise 2: Close Reading of Twain’s style, 4-5 p.p.
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| Week 7 |
Connecticut Yankee
Railton: PreTexts, Publicity & Camelot & Technology
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| Week 8 |
Connecticut Yankee Discussion
Railton: Reviews
Woloch: The One vs. the Many: Minor Characters
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| Week 9 |
Those Extraordinary Twins
Railton: Twain & Twins, PreTexts & Illustrations
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| Week 10 |
Pudd'nhead Wilson & Reading Race in Twain
Eric Sundquist, To Wake the Nations (“Mark Twain and Homer Plessy”)
Terrell Dempsey, Searching for Jim : Slavery in Sam Clemens's World
Jocelyn Chadwick-Joshua, The Jim Dilemma: Reading Race in Huckleberry Finn
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| Week 11 |
Political Twain
"The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg"
"To the Person Sitting in Darkness,” "The War Prayer" &
"The United States of Lyncherdom"
Exercise 3: Prospectus for final paper, 2 p.p. (posted on Blackboard)
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| Week 12 |
Selections from The Devil's Race-Track (1)
"Which Was the Dream?" "The Great Dark" & "Which Was It"
"3000 Years Among the Microbes"
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| Week 13 |
Presentation of Final Projects
Final Paper: Critical essay, responding to three outside sources,10-12 pp.
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