Posted on 01/03/2011 7:16:53 PM PST by Free ThinkerNY
A PUBLISHER is planning to release a new edition of two of Mark Twain's classic novels that replaces the racial slurs used throughout the books with less offensive language.
NewSouth Books will release a single volume containing both novels, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, overseen by Twain scholar Alan Gribben, Publisher's Weekly said. In both, the n-word is replaced with the word "slave" and the word "Injun" is removed.
"This is not an effort to render Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn colourblind," said Mr Gribben, the head of the English department at Auburn University at Montgomery in Alabama. "Race matters in these books. It's a matter of how you express that in the 21st century."
The n-word appears 219 times in the current edition of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, including the table of contents. The racially-charged language has resulted in the book being banned from many grade school curricula and libraries over the decades despite its status as a classic of American literature.
Mr Gribben said he was inspired by speaking with teachers who were disappointed that the language in the book prevented them from teaching it.
“They said 'we would love to teach [Tom Sawyer] and Huckleberry Finn, but we feel we can't do it anymore.' In the new classroom, it's really not acceptable," he said. "For a single word to form a barrier, it seems such an unnecessary state of affairs."
(Excerpt) Read more at theaustralian.com.au ...
So what will they call these New Editions? And will they continue to say they were written by Mark Twain?
I’m just surprised to learn that anyone at Auburn University (even the one in Montgomery) can spell much less READ.
“They’re for the advanced English class of senior year high school or college”
Disagree. Great literature is not just for adults. My son is 14 and finished reading “To Kill A Mockingbird”. It was light reading to him since he had read “Tom Sawyer”, “1984”, “Animal Farm”, and “Fahrenheit 451” in middle school. Although he is in advanced English, too many people think middle schoolers and early high school kids are ignorant. Introduce a child to classical literature and you open the world to them. IMHO
Excellent essay, thank you. A depressing essay, with a depressing analysis, but you make excellent sense.
That's racist....
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This publisher might snag a few sales at some colleges, but he doesn’t have a monopoly on Huckleberry Finn or any of Twains works.
The heck they ain’t wonderful stories.
Literature and wonderful stories are not mutually exclusive terms. Other’n at, you’re absolutely right. Except . . .
I read these first as a kid. They were so memorable that I went back to read them as an adult. Different experience. I think I get some of the complexity now. These wonderful stories are making a difference in my own writing life. But the reason they’re transcendent, is because a kid can love them, too. Try getting that out of Thomas the Train vids, eh?
But, hey,
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