Spring 2010 class: Engl. 528. “Mark Twain: Dark Laughter”

Engl. 528. “Mark Twain: Dark Laughter”
–Jerry Griswold
--Tuesdays 1530-1810 (3:30-6:10 p.m.) Hepner Hall 210.

( 2010 marks the 175th anniversary of Sam Clemens’s birth, the 100th anniversary of his death, and the 125th anniversary of the publication of Huckleberry Finn. This course will be offered in conjunction with Love Library’s “Mark Twain Centenary Celebration” during Spring Semester.)

The man in the white suit. The “Lincoln of our literature.” The man with the doubled name. This course will focus on four novels and on literary criticism about those works: Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn, The Prince and the Pauper and Puddn’head Wilson. We will also read Justin Kaplan’s biography Mr. Clemens and Mark Twain and attend events at the Library’s Centenary Celebration: lectures, theater, displays and videos. We will have more than a few laughs. And we will examine Twain’s humor, as well as the subjects of race, crossdressing, religion, and twins.