A New Historicist Approach To The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn

Mark Twain, William Faulkner regarded him as “the father of American literature”, and William Dean Howells thought him “the Lincoln of American literature”. He is one of the greatest American writers in the 19 century. Among all his works, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is the most famous and successful one in his whole life. Though the wonderful portrayal of the boy protagonist attracts many readers, the outstanding work is often simplified, it is considered as the category of “boy stories”. They focus on the description of children’s character. In the last few decades, with the development of western critical theories, researchers try to use these particular points of view and ways to read the novel once again extensively and intensively, from varying angles. Deeper layers of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn are tested and more essential elements are found. However, attempts to put Mark Twain and his excellent work The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn in a larger social and historical context to fully analyze the author’s subversion, containment and negotiation remain insufficient.The 1960 s saw the emergence of New Historicism, which stresses the importance of historical context in literary criticism. With regard to the relationship between literary works and the social and historical context, scholars of this school no longer hold that a literary work must be the ideological result of a certain form of society or a certain period of history, but give more consideration on how they interact. Furthermore, New Historicism renounces the absolute concern of old historicism with the will of the ruling class; instead, it focuses more on the immediate emotions of individuals within genuine, concrete and intricate social and historical context. This thesis studies Mark Twain and his writings The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn with New Historicism as the theoretical basis, and in doing so, tries to open a new perspective to fully understand Mark Twain’s subversion, containment and negotiation with power.The thesis consists of five parts. First gives an introduction to the author and the novel, and then introduces the literature review, at last points out its theoretical basis, organization and purpose. In analyzing The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, the thesis borrows three terms from New Historicism as keywords: “subversion”, “containment”, and “negotiation”. Chapter one attempts to discuss how “subversion” is demonstrated. This chapter includes four parts. Part One is criticism on the southern decadent culture-subversion to the mainstream of thoughts, which comprises the white’s so-called civilization and refinement, scholasticism, Twain’s denial and contempt towards the sovereignty and years of family fighting, looting and violence. Part Two is the pursuit for freedom and equality-subversion to the politics, concentrating on Jim’s physical liberty, Huck’s moral liberty and their pursuit of equality. Part Three is subversive description of the purity of Jim-subversion to moral, focusing on the moral perspective of Jim. Part Four is unconventional features of its language-subversion to the mainstream of language. Chapter Two examines how the force of “subversion” is contained. This section includes four parts: Jim’s subordinate position in their escape, the negative parts of Jim’s image; the limitation of character selection; the limitation of the space in which Huck and Jim are equal. Chapter Three is about how Mark Twain brings balance between “subversion” and “containment”, that is “negotiation”. It has four parts: friendship between Huck and Jim, punishment to the negative characters, Tom’s rescue and Miss Watson’s voluntary release of Jim, Huck’s compromise to the society. The last part is conclusion. Through the analysis of Mark Twain’s subversion, containment and negotiation with power, readers can easily witness a dialogue between literature and power, and get to know Twain’s democratic thought and its limitation.