Focuses on Twain's unique departure from his tradition, emphasizing the ways in which he used humor to organize and give meaning to his work.
Contents
The material of humor. From the Old Southwest -- The narrator. Beginning of a strategy ; The strategy developed -- Parodies and burlesques. Form and force -- The hoax. Revelation ; Fooling poor old Huck -- Calling the bluff: images of darkness and of light. Was Hadleyburg corrupted? ; The ills of humanity ; The hoax as cosmology.
