Mark Twain on the Loose: A Comic Writer and the American Self

By Bruce Michelson

Book Overview

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.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0870239678
• ISBN13: 9780870239670
• Release Date: April 1995
• Publisher: University of Massachusetts Press
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 1.00 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.0" x 9.3"
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher