Not Trying to Talk Alike and Succeeding: The Authoritative Word and Internally-Persuasive Word in Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn
2006; University of North Texas Press; Volume: 38; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês
ISSN
1934-1512
Autores Tópico(s)American Sports and Literature
ResumoIt don't make no difference how foolish it is, it's right way--and it's regular way. And there ain't no other way, that ever heard of; and I've read all books that gives any information about these things. Tom Sawyer-Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, 304 I went along, not fixing up any particular plan, but just trusting to Providence to put right words in my mouth when time come; for I'd noticed that Providence always did put right words in my mouth, if left it alone. Huck Finn--Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, 277 this book number of dialects are used.... shadings have not been done in haphazard fashion, or by guess work; but pains-takingly, and with trustworthy guidance and support of personal familiarity with these several forms of speech. make this explanation for reason that without it many readers would suppose that all these characters were trying to talk alike and not succeeding. author-Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Given Mark Twain's embrace of of dialects and painstaking accuracy with which he renders this diversity, (1) it seems natural enough to read Adventures of Huckleberry Finn through theory of Mikhail Bakhtin. As David Sewell writes in Mark Twain's Languages, If Mark Twain discovered empiricism without reading Locke, he also looked forward to particular interpretation of linguistic variety that we associate with (7). In fact, much criticism that not make direct reference to Bakhtin's work still reads Twain in ways consistent with Bakhtin's definition of novel as diversity of social speech types ... and of individual voices, artistically organized (262). The prose writer, writes Bakhtin, does not purge words of and tones that are alien to him, he not destroy seeds of social heteroglossia embedded in words, he not eliminate those language characterizations and speech mannerisms (potential narrator-personalities) glimmering behind words and forms, each at different distance from ultimate semantic nucleus of his work, that is, center of his own personal intentions (298). Certainly this description fits novel that features cast of characters who are not all trying to talk alike. In following essay, wish to offer not only Bakhtinian reading of Huck Finn, but also of that novel's relationship to Adventures of Tom Sawyer. wish to suggest that Bakhtin's distinction between and word can also distinguish central differences between Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. These differences lies in Twain's decision to make Huck narrator of his own tale. Whereas narrator of Tom Sawyer is absolutely authoritative, Huck presents rather unliterary authority. In Tom Sawyer, Twain forces language to submit to his own intentions; however, by making Huck narrator of Huck Finn, Twain relinquishes control over heteroglossia, which Michael Holquist has called a roiling mass of languages (69). Because Twain gets out of Huck's way, he allows Huck to be different kind of hero, and one that is ultimately more compelling. Whereas Tom is the sanctioned rebel (Fetterley, Sanctioned 126), Huck--and his companion Jim--are entirely beyond sanction. Tom not need to struggle to assimilate authoritative word to his internally-persuasive word because he takes latter from former. Huck, on other hand, must struggle to assimilate authoritative word and his own internally-persuasive word. As result of this struggle, Huck's story is different than one written mainly for entertainment of boys and girls. Because Twain allows Huck to tell his own tale, reader witnesses what Bakhtin calls an ideological becoming, struggle between authoritative discourse and internally-persuasive discourse. …
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