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

told them, however, that missionaries who had just returned from Africa were to lecture on African music. The respective section of the Autobiography reads as follows: "When the grotesque negroes came filing out on the stage in their extravagant costumes, the old ladies were almost speechless with astonishment. I explained to them that the missionaries always dressed like that in Africa. But Aunt Betsy said, reproachfully, 'But they're niggers'" (62). The two previous citations from Twain's Autobiography are remarkable for several reasons. The first one demonstrates how, on the one hand, Twain is totally captivated by the humor of the minstrel show, and, on the other, the somewhat apologetic tone assumed in the name of the white performers for the not completely adequate parody exercised on the stage. The first quotation clearly proves that Twain describes the blackface act not as an outsider, but more as a professional humorist who lives within and becomes one with this strange, enigmatic and complex world that the show is. This explains why Twain understands blackface's rituals and strategies more than an average outsider would. Mixed into the account are feelings of uncertainty, guilt, admiration and ecstasy, which reflect ambiguities that are not exclusively the author's but inherent in the blackface act as well. The ambivalent psychological processes revealed in the passage also attest to complexities and ambivalences regarding the relationships between the minstrel performer and the object of his impersonation (the slaves), those between the spectators and the performance (the blackface act), the spectators and the black ethnic group, and finally the minstrel performers and their spectators. It can be thus hypothesized that Twain's own complex feelings indirectly reflect the underlying psychological processes of the blackface performance itself. The point of interest in the second quotation is that in it Twain widens the scope of parody to include minstrel audiences along with the Negroes parodied on stage. Back in the 19th century there were many people who mistakenly identified the blackface stage entertainers with blacks, and likewise the contents, the narrative elements of the shows were often decoded as authentic features of black existence. In the scene described Twain is amused as much by the minstrel performers as by his relatives, especially as he witnesses 262