Az Eszterházy Károly Tanárképző Főiskola Tudományos Közleményei. 2002. Vol. 8. Eger Journal of American Studies.(Acta Academiae Paedagogicae Agriensis : Nova series ; Tom. 28)

Studies - Gabriella Varró: The Adventures of the Minstrel Sign in Mark Twain 's Huckleberry Finn

GABRIELLA VARRÓ THE ADVENTURES OF THE MINSTREL SIGN IN MARK TWAIN'S HUCKLEBERRY FINN I remember the first negro musical show I ever saw. It must have been in the early forties. It was a new institution. In our village of Hannibal we had not heard of it before and it burst upon us as a glad and stunning surprise. The show remained a week and gave a performance every night. Church members didn't attend these performances, but all the worldlings flocked to them and were enchanted. Church members didn't attend shows out there in those days. The minstrels appeared with coal-black hands and faces and their clothing was a loud and extravagant burlesque of the clothing worn by the plantation slave of the time; not that the rags of the poor slave were burlesqued, for that would not have been possible; burlesque could have added nothing in the way of extravagance to the sorrowful accumulation of rags and patches which constituted his costume; it was the form and color of his dress that was burlesqued. [...] The minstrel used a very broad negro dialect; he used it competently and with easy facility and it was funny

—delightfully and satisfyingly funny. (.Autobiography 59) Mark Twain was a great fan and admirer of the minstrel shows, and he himself attended many performances in and around Hannibal and St. Louis, Missouri. In his Autobiography he gave several accounts of the elevating experience provided by the shows, and his firm belief that blackface entertainment was one of the most perfect forms of humor remained his conviction throughout his life. Once he even persuaded his mother and aunt to accompany him to the theatre. He 261