The American Renaissance and Mark Twain

This course explores Mark Twain's literary rivalry with Harriet Beecher Stowe and discusses why Huckleberry Finn’s story is labeled as a "tall tale". The module also defines "realism" and "naturalism" in terms of Twain's works. Next, it examines how blackface minstrelsy display the ambivalence as the basis for interracial bonds in the United States and compares the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn with Mark Twain's own autobiographical work, "Life on the Mississippi".