Revisiting Huck: Idol and Target Reading Twain: Critical Humbug and Mysterious Stranger The Mark Twain Circle at MLA 2004-2005

Abstract

As a landmark in the present-or more accurately, the ever present-culture wars, Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and the arguments surrounding its meaning and value may now appear to be little more than skirmishes. After all, we live in an era full of interpretive battles that trumpet their significance through any number of commercial and political venues. While beliefs about Intelligent Design have successfully contended with the theory of evolution, scientists from around the world pursue the promise of human cloning as if it were the holy grail. While parents worry over the sexuality of SpongeBob Squarepants, two gay cowboys have roped and wrestled their way to an Academy Award nomination. And while the Supreme Court takes on the look and the agenda of an old-boys' Catholic School, two of the most viable candidates to run for the Presidency in 2008 are Condoleezza Rice, the first female, African American Secretary of State, and Senator Hillary Rodham-Clinton, a (mostly) unapologetic firstwave feminist. If blue-state liberals and redstate conservatives are in fact battling for the hearts and minds of the American public-and it's entirely possible that such divisions actually mask a more sophisticated political landscaping-they no longer seem preoccupied with determining the color of Twain's politics or the content of Huck's character. Yet, when the Mark Twain Circle of America invited Jonathan Arac to revisit his controversial book, Huckleberry Finn as Idol and Target: The Functions of Criticism in Our Time , at the MLA's 2005 annual convention, we did not do so as a nostalgic gesture. Instead, it was our hope to draw attention to the timeliness of Huckleberry Finn, and even necessity of examining its role in American education and culture. Thanks to the Mark Twain Annual , we are able to widen the scope of these