Abstract
Racial relationships were an extremely controversial subject around the time of the Civil War in the USA. Harriet Beecher Stowe in Uncle Tom’s Cabin and Mark Twain in Adventures of Huckleberry Finn treat this provocative issue of race by entrusting important roles to the African-American characters. Uncle Tom and Jim. Predicting the reader's possible revolt against the blatant treatment of the issue, the two novelists use racist expressions in the convention of their contemporary audiences to construct a communication channel with their audiences. As a result, these novels have won enormous popularity. However, they have been criticized for racist tendencies Beneath the seemingly racist surface of their texts, Stowe and Twain present an innovative vision of unconditional human equality. Using various rhetorical strategies, these authors help their audiences realize the unfairness and false grounds of racism. The dialectic between the racist language and the anti-racist message of their texts creates a dynamic force spurring readers into a reconsideration of their attitude toward race.
Highlights
One of the critical issues Harriet Beecher Stowe and Mark Twain deal with in their works is the race problem between African-Americans and whiteLlterator 19(1} April 1998:65-78Rhetorical engagement with racism: Uncle Tom's Cabin &
The immense popularity o f Uncle Tom's Cabin and Huckleberry Finn proves that Stowe and Twain devoted their writing to their rhetorical audience, namely white racists
The claim by Leonard and Teimey that “it is difficult to teach irony, to overcome the literal, to show that a book may mean the opposite of what its words seem to say” (Leonard et al, 1992:9) is certainly borne out by responses to Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uticle Tom and Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn
Summary
Rhetorical engagement with racism: Uncle Tom's Cabin &. Stowe’s Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852) and Twain’s Adventures o f Huckleberry Finn (1884) were written at a time when the issue of “race” was highly controversial. Uncle Tom and Jim, with significant roles in their novels. Such an attempt attests to the novelists’ conviction illustrated in their texts that all Americans, regardless of race, should have equal opportunities of fimctioning as important members in their community. The novelists assumed that their audiences were white racists and tried not to stimulate their antipathy. They use racist expressions which create the irony and mirror effects. They present attractive model pictures of racial equality in their texts
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