‘The Subtleties of the American Joke’: Mark Twain versus Europe

Kód výsledku v IS VaVaI

<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F19194951%3A_____%2F24%3AN0000007" target="_blank" >RIV/19194951:_____/24:N0000007 - isvavai.cz</a>

Výsledek na webu

<a href="https://digilib.phil.muni.cz/handle/11222.digilib/digilib.81081" target="_blank" >https://digilib.phil.muni.cz/handle/11222.digilib/digilib.81081</a>

DOI - Digital Object Identifier

<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.5817/BSE2024-1-10" target="_blank" >10.5817/BSE2024-1-10</a>

Jazyk výsledku

angličtina

Název v původním jazyce

‘The Subtleties of the American Joke’: Mark Twain versus Europe

Popis výsledku v původním jazyce

“Guides can not master the subtleties of the American joke,” Mark Twain writes after he finishes a bout of stymying European efforts to teach culture to him and his comrades in The Innocents Abroad (293). The joke is double-barreled: Europeans do not realize the joke is on them for being stuck in their past and because Americans are not as dull-witted as they seem, but the joke is also of course on clueless traveling Americans, thrashing about Europe for cultural self-improvement. However, and mostly overlooked in previous analyses, there really is a “subtlety” to that multi-layered term “the American joke.” Acknowledging earlier socio-historical analyses of Twain’s confrontation between new and old worlds, as well as criticism problematizing the idea of authenticity in travel or implicating his book in Western imperialism, this paper instead explores via the lens of Menippean satire Twain’s complex narrative construction of his “joke”, which ultimately blends humor and horror.

Název v anglickém jazyce

‘The Subtleties of the American Joke’: Mark Twain versus Europe

Popis výsledku anglicky

“Guides can not master the subtleties of the American joke,” Mark Twain writes after he finishes a bout of stymying European efforts to teach culture to him and his comrades in The Innocents Abroad (293). The joke is double-barreled: Europeans do not realize the joke is on them for being stuck in their past and because Americans are not as dull-witted as they seem, but the joke is also of course on clueless traveling Americans, thrashing about Europe for cultural self-improvement. However, and mostly overlooked in previous analyses, there really is a “subtlety” to that multi-layered term “the American joke.” Acknowledging earlier socio-historical analyses of Twain’s confrontation between new and old worlds, as well as criticism problematizing the idea of authenticity in travel or implicating his book in Western imperialism, this paper instead explores via the lens of Menippean satire Twain’s complex narrative construction of his “joke”, which ultimately blends humor and horror.

Druh

J_SC - Článek v periodiku v databázi SCOPUS

CEP obor

—

OECD FORD obor

60204 - General literature studies

Projekt

—

Návaznosti

N - Vyzkumna aktivita podporovana z neverejnych zdroju

Rok uplatnění

2024

Kód důvěrnosti údajů

S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů

Název periodika

Brno studies in English

ISSN

0524-6881

e-ISSN

1805-0867

Svazek periodika

51

Číslo periodika v rámci svazku

1

Stát vydavatele periodika

CZ - Česká republika

Počet stran výsledku

16

Strana od-do

167-183

Kód UT WoS článku

—

EID výsledku v databázi Scopus

2-s2.0-85217560691