Film Friday I have been teaching an adult film class this semester in conjunction with a fascinating exhibit on fences that our college’s art gallery has mounted with help from the Smithsonian Museum. My contribution is to exhibit and talk about films that focus on fences, walls, and other types of boundaries. This past Tuesday […]
Tag Archives: racism
Mexican-U.S. Relations: A Touch of Evil
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Mexican border, Orson Welles, politics, Touch of Evil Comments closed
How Life Looks When One Is Property
Last week we had another fine presentation in the series of Twain lectures that my colleague Ben Click has been running. Once again a talk about race and Huckleberry Finn deepened my respect for that magnificent book. Here are some of the ideas I picked up, which I share with you from memory since I didn’t […]
Damn the N-Word, Full Speed Ahead
Writing about interracial friendships in yesterday’s post brings to mind the most famous interracial friendship in literature, that between Huck and Jim. The novel is once again in the news (is it ever out of it?) with a new edition of the novel where the n-word is changed to “slave.” The edition is the brainchild […]
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged censorship, Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain, teaching literature Comments closed
Behn & Friendships across Race Lines
Recalling an interracial friendship from my days in my newly integrated high school, I turn to Aprha Behn’s “Oroonoko” to understand why such friendships are so difficult, even for the best intentioned people.
Huck Finn’s Censorship History
I have always been fascinated by the many ways that literature influences our lives, but, as a literary scholar, I also know that influence is a very hard thing to prove. That’s why I find censorship to be interesting. When people censor a book, they do so because they assume that it can have an […]
Twain Was No Racist (Not Even Close)
“I hope that like Mark Twain, 100 years from now people will see my work and think, ‘Wow. That is actually pretty racist.’” –Tina Fey accepting the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor Thanks to a visiting lecturer in our Mark Twain series, I have a new understanding of Huckleberry Finn that is exciting me […]
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Heart of Darkness, Huckleberry Finn, Joseph Conrad, Mark Twain, segregation Comments closed
Is There a Price for Doing Evil?
In a dinner conversation with academic colleagues and novelist Rachel Kranz, we grappled with the question of whether those who commit atrocities pay a price for doing so. I came to the conclusion that it is a question that novelists and poets are sometimes better at answering than academics.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "Mask of Evil", Bertolt Brecht, Evil, Nazis, Rachel Kranz, Suffering Comments closed
