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
their consternation at the sight of stage Negroes, whereas in real life the ladies were in daily contact with blacks. To the women the appearance of the Negro on stage is inappropriate and inadequate, this is not the "natural" environment where they should appear, and hence the shock. Comedy arises from the complete failure of previous expectations pertaining to the performance, the missionaries are replaced by "Negroes" (in the lady's interpretation at least), the Negroes are in reality white performers in blackface, and light-hearted entertainment is thus overridden by indignation. Twain's meditation about the scene, however, is not constructed along the authenticityinauthenticity dichotomy —he is not interested in whether the audience is capable of recognizing the true identity of the performers —instead he is testing the reactions of white audiences with respect to the Negroes as incarnated through white impersonation. In a sense the two quotations might very well be conceived as a summary of Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. On the one hand, the novel charts the attraction-resistance dichotomy between blacks and whites, which also simulates the rhythmic shifts in the ambivalent psychology of blackface performance (see the quotation used as the epigraph). On the other hand, Twain is deeply interested in how typical the emotional and ethical responses of various social classes (upper, middle and lower) to blacks really are (cf. the second quotation). The latent question that seems to be formulated throughout the entire novel cycle is whether there is any development possible in inter-racial, inter-ethnic communication within certain social groups. 1 Twain's curious attraction to the minstrel show can be explained in many ways, but first among these possible arguments is one closely tied to the author's aesthetic mission. Namely that Twain, being, among other things, an ardent promoter of a truly national vernacular, 1 It is a surprising coincidence that current minstrelsy criticism (similarly to emphasis laid out by Twain's writings) is also intent on moving away from the authenticity-inauthenticity dilemma with respect to black representation, primarily since this has always been regarded as a politically sensitive issue, and secondly because this area of debate contains a multitude of subjective elements. Contemporary minstrelsy criticism also stresses the research of interrelations between the minstrel shows and various social classes, while underscoring the significance of political alliances across class and ethnic boundaries revealed in the contents of the shows. 263
