{"title":"Oceanic Fiction, W. Clark Russell, and Twain's Sequel to \"Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offenses\"","authors":"Nathaniel Williams","doi":"10.5325/marktwaij.18.1.0123","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:Twain's unfinished essay on William Clark Russell's Wreck of the Grosvenor (1877) was intended as a follow-up to \"Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offenses.\" In topic and content, Twain's Grosvenor essay recontextualizes how we read its famous predecessor. Unlike the Cooper essay—so often framed by textbooks as an American-centric statement on literary values—Twain's essay on Russell targets a still-living English writer and highly praises his compositions. Moreover, Russell wrote in a genre (the sea narrative) that, as oceanic studies scholars have suggested, decenters nationalism. Twain enjoyed Russell's naval fiction throughout his life, evinced by journal entries, letters, and an aborted burlesque of sea stories. Ultimately, Twain's genuine admiration for Russell's work made it hard for him muster the same comedic vitriol for British sea narratives that he did for Cooper's historical novels.","PeriodicalId":41060,"journal":{"name":"Mark Twain Annual","volume":"18 1","pages":"123 - 132"},"PeriodicalIF":0.2000,"publicationDate":"2020-11-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"1","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Mark Twain Annual","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.5325/marktwaij.18.1.0123","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: 1
Abstract
Abstract:Twain's unfinished essay on William Clark Russell's Wreck of the Grosvenor (1877) was intended as a follow-up to "Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offenses." In topic and content, Twain's Grosvenor essay recontextualizes how we read its famous predecessor. Unlike the Cooper essay—so often framed by textbooks as an American-centric statement on literary values—Twain's essay on Russell targets a still-living English writer and highly praises his compositions. Moreover, Russell wrote in a genre (the sea narrative) that, as oceanic studies scholars have suggested, decenters nationalism. Twain enjoyed Russell's naval fiction throughout his life, evinced by journal entries, letters, and an aborted burlesque of sea stories. Ultimately, Twain's genuine admiration for Russell's work made it hard for him muster the same comedic vitriol for British sea narratives that he did for Cooper's historical novels.
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.
京公网安备 11010802042870号
京ICP备2023020795号-1
分享
求助内容：
应助结果提醒方式：
扫码关注我们
