TheHistoricalandCulturalContextofAdventuresof.ppt

The Historical and Cultural Context of Adventures of Huckleberry Finnby Mark Twain Historical Context of Huckleberry Finn Set in pre-Civil War years 40-50 years before 1885 publication Slavery ended, but racism still rampant (Jim Crow Laws) Mark Twain underwent moral transformation… He believed slavery was wrong and white Americans owed black Americans reparations 19th CENTURY The Civil War Industrial Revolution Extreme contrasts between rich and poor Literary and Artistic Movements: REALISM and REGIONALISM 1. Attack upon Romantics and Transcendentalists pragmatic, democratic, and experimental Responsibly moral – goal was to report the world with HONESTY Drew subject matter from “our experience” Focused on the common, the average, the probable 3. Character and Setting more important than Plot (Local Color Movement) Focused on the norm of daily experience Dialect, geography, regional manners HUCKLEBERRY FINN is a… COMING-OF-AGE NOVEL: moral growth of a comic character in an physically beautiful yet morally repugnant setting and a… PICARESQUE NOVEL: follows the adventures of a roguish hero episodic: Mississippi River flight to freedom vs. river flowing toward Deep South (slave territory) 19th century Americans are self-conscious… They want to know what their new country looks like, and how the varied races of growing population live and talk 19th century Firsts… First mappings of the West First transcontinental railroad First Photography Photography as a social mirror… The invention ignited an artistic and scientific frenzy… Best portrait makers could bring out the very human essence of a subject… The advantages of photography: immediacy, reliable representation, low cost, etc… Massive social changes reflected in literature photography. 1861-65 - Mathew Brady, Alexander Gardner: honest photographic record of the Civil War. Photography, like literary Realism Regionalism showed TRUTH. “Something new happened in Huck Finn that had never