The adventures of Huckleberry Finn
~~~~~
 Literary Criticism  

The following resources will assist you in completing your critical essay on Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.  

 Reference




How to Cite

   Novels for Students (REF 808 NOV Vol. 1)
Each volume of Novels for Students contains easily accessible and content-rich discussions of the literary and historical background of works from various cultures and time periods. Each novel included in this new resource was specially chosen by an advisory panel of teachers and librarians.

Within the pages of Novels for Students, young researchers will discover everything they need to complete homework assignments and lead classroom discussions. Here's what they'll find at their fingertips:

  • Introductory essays that place each novel in its historical and literary context
  • Easy-to-understand discussions of the novel's themes, plot and characters
  • Analysis of the novel's literary construction
  • Age-appropriate critical commentary on the novel's significance for our times
  • A literary glossary that defines difficult terms
  • A timeline that juxtaposes literary and world events
  • Illustrations

See also:

 Non-fiction

Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Bloom's Modern Critical Interpretations) (813.4 MAR)
Hailed by writers and critics alike as one of the most important American novels ever written, Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn gave a distinct voice to American literature. This updated volume is an essential resource for those seeking to deepen their appreciation of this perennial favorite.
 
  • Critical essays reflecting a variety of schools of criticism
  • Notes on the contributing critics, a chronology of the author's life, and an index
  • An introductory essay by Harold Bloom.  

    •  

    		 Huck Finn (Bloom's Major Literary Characters series) (813 HUC)
     Includes Bloom's essay "The Analysis of Character" and introductory essays on title characters. Huck Finn, one of Twain's most memorable characters, can be described as both plucky and adventurous. His free-spirited nature is a part of the American psyche and the story of his travels down the Mississippi River with the runaway slave Jim remains among the great American narratives.

    See also:

     

     Online Databases

    		  Scriber's Writers Series
    Scribner Writer's Series includes 15-20 page signed essays on more than 1,600 authors and literary genres drawn from the acclaimed Scribner print series.
         

    		Student Resource Center Gold
    Student Resource Center Gold Offers more than 1,100 full-text periodicals and newspapers, primary sources, creative works, and multimedia, including hours of video and audio clips and podcasts

     

    		The Twayne Authors Series
    Comprises 600 full-text titles from the Twayne Literary Masters series, 200 each from Twayne World, US, and English Authors.


     Internet Resources

    General Websites & Articles
    The Gilded Age

    Gilded Age and Progressive Era Resources: http://www.tntech.edu/history/gilprog.html

    Kingswood College Library - 19th Century American Decades Pages: http://kclibrary.lonestar.edu/19thcentury.html

    America's Story - Gilded Age: www.americaslibrary.gov/cgi-bin/page.cgi/jb/gilded

    Websites for the Gilded Age and the Progressive Era: http://bss.sfsu.edu/cherny/gapesites.htm

    WWW Virtual Library - The Gilded Age: http://vlib.iue.it/history/USA/ERAS/gilded.html
     
    Mark Twain
    (a.k.a. Samuel Clemens)

    American Literature on the Web: Mark Twain (Samuel Langhorn Clemens): http://www.nagasaki-gaigo.ac.jp/ishikawa/amlit/t/twain19re.htm

    American Masters - The American Novel: Mark Twain: http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americannovel/timeline/twain.html

    The Mark Twain Papers and Project Page: http://bancroft.berkeley.edu/MTP/

    IPL.org - Online Literary Criticism Collection: Mark Twain (1835-1910): http://www.ipl.org.ar/cgi-bin/ref/litcrit/litcrit.out.pl?au=twa-62

    Mark Twain: Other Resources: www.pbs.org/newshour/media/twain/links.html

    PBS.org - Mark Twain: http://www.pbs.org/marktwain/index.html
     

    Literary Criticisms, Critical Essays

    "Jim's Africanist Presence in Huckleberry Finn" by Toni Morrison http://www.mona.uwi.edu/liteng/courses/E34B/documents/Toni%20MorrisonJimsAfricanistPresence.RTF

    "Come Back to the Raft Ag'in Huck Honey" by Leslie Fiedler http://books.google.com/books?id=jnUS_zZdkWQC&pg=PA26&dq=leslie+fiedler+come+back+to+the+raft+ag'in+

    huck+honey&cd=1#v=onepage&q=leslie%20fiedler%20come%20back%20to%20the%20raft%20ag'in%20huck%20honey&f=false

    Fight Over Huck Finn Continues: Ed Professor Wages Battle for Twain Classic: http://www.hno.harvard.edu/gazette/2000/09.28/huckfinn.html

    Harvard Education Letter: Why Huck Finn Belongs in the Classroom:
    http://www.edletter.org/past/issues/2000-nd/huckfinn.shtml

    Internet Public Library - Online Literary Criticism Collection - The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn:
    http://www.ipl.org.ar/cgi-bin/ref/litcrit/litcrit.out.pl?ti=adv-38

    PBS Culture Shock: Born to Trouble - The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/cultureshock/beyond/huck.html

    The Reception of Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn in 1885: A Controversial Process: http://www.tinet.org/~fromeu/huckreception.pdf

    University of Virginia Library: Reviews of Huckleberry Finn: http://etext.virginia.edu/railton/huckfinn/hucrevhp.html

    Was Huck Black?: Mark Twain and African American Voices: http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=KQNsc27lTYwC&oi=fnd&pg=
     PP11&dq=%22huck+finn%22+criticism&ots=NK7CNjuEP8&sig=Lb2Rtl9rPLQ4e3p-qoqNG6MK-6Y

    Writing Huck Finn: Mark Twain's Creative Process: http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=bDTQwA4lDEC&oi=fnd&pg=PR9&dq=%
     22huck+finn%22+criticism&ots=_greqDT627&sig=7dyw2YwFWW2tyja6RSV-5Ye_fjQ#PPP1,M1
     
    Online Texts

    The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn - Online Text: http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/76

    Huckleberry Finn as Idol and Target - The Functions of Criticism in Our Time: http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=twfLrDgYRlUC&oi=fnd&pg=PR7&dq=
    %22huck+finn%22+criticism&ots=vUKkB8wth5&sig=dJMjfqz9A9VysoqWOSliLRaX-NY#PPP1,M1         (Chapters: Huckleberry Finn As Idol and Target; All Right, Then, I'll Go To Hell: Historical Contexts; Forty Years of Controversy; Uncle Tom's Cabin vs. Huckleberry Finn: The Historians and the Critics; Lionel Trilling: The Key Text in Context; Nationalization and Hypercanonization; Vernacular and Nationality: Comparative Contexts; Nation, Race and Beyond; Coda: The Memories of Huckleberry Finn.
     

    If you don't find what you're looking for in any of the sites above,
    try your own keyword search using the following tips...

     Internet Search Tips

    1. Type the URL (web site address) of a search directory/engine in the address box: ex: www.yahoo.com, or www.google.com, etc.
       
    2. (Be sure to type the address exactly the way you see it, including any uppercase letters and punctuation).
       
    3. Type in keyword(s). (If your keyword has two parts such as: "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn", be sure to put quotes around it so that the search engine only finds the Internet sites about The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn as opposed to all of the sites containing the word adventures plus all of the sites containing the word Huckleberry and Finn.
       
    4. If you would like to search for something specific about The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, try a combined keyword search by adding a comma, followed by a space and you other search term.  For instance; if I wanted to find literary criticism on Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, I would enter the following:
       

       "Mark Twain", "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn", criticism
       

    5. Hit Enter on your keyboard, or click on Search, then scan the description of the "hits" (entries) and click on the links that sound best.
       
    6. Be sure to critically evaluate Internet sources.  UC Berkley Library's Evaluating Webpages: Techniques to Apply and Questions to Ask is an excellent source to help you critique the quality of websites in the following areas:
    7. Remember: if you choose to use any information (text or graphics) found on the Internet, online databases, or print material, you must cite every resource you used.  Use the Works Cited Guide to access MLA format.
    8. Keep in mind Region 15's  Plagiarism Policy
       

    Created by Liza Zandonella, Library Media Specialist.

     

    Home