{"title":"“Night after Night and Day after Day”: Mark Twain and the Natural World","authors":"Barbara Ladd","doi":"10.5325/marktwaij.17.1.0011","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:Although Mark Twain was not himself an environmentalist, he was deeply sensitive to the interdependence of humankind and the natural world, to the conditions, often difficult, under which we inhabit the natural world, and to its ultimate indifference to our desires—issues that continue to preoccupy ecocritics, whether they are inclined toward philosophy or public policy. This article argues that the Mississippi River is touchstone for the natural world in Twain’s work and that Life on the Mississippi, a record of his return to the river in the aftermath of the great flood of 1882, demonstrates the power of a natural world both beautiful and indecipherable in Twain’s imagination.","PeriodicalId":41060,"journal":{"name":"Mark Twain Annual","volume":"17 1","pages":"11 - 27"},"PeriodicalIF":0.2000,"publicationDate":"2019-10-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Mark Twain Annual","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.5325/marktwaij.17.1.0011","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"0","JCRName":"LITERATURE, AMERICAN","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Abstract:Although Mark Twain was not himself an environmentalist, he was deeply sensitive to the interdependence of humankind and the natural world, to the conditions, often difficult, under which we inhabit the natural world, and to its ultimate indifference to our desires—issues that continue to preoccupy ecocritics, whether they are inclined toward philosophy or public policy. This article argues that the Mississippi River is touchstone for the natural world in Twain’s work and that Life on the Mississippi, a record of his return to the river in the aftermath of the great flood of 1882, demonstrates the power of a natural world both beautiful and indecipherable in Twain’s imagination.
期刊介绍:
The Mark Twain Annual publishes articles related to Mark Twain and those who surrounded him and serves as an outlet for new scholarship as well as new pedagogical approaches. It is the official publication of the Mark Twain Circle of America, an international association of people interested in the life and work of Mark Twain. The Circle encourages interest in Mark Twain and fosters the formal presentation of ideas about the author and his work, as well as the informal exchange of information among its members.