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

freedom for former slaves (Fishkin 74). The relationship between Twain and the minstrel tradition is much more complex than that of any of his contemporaries. The writer in part indicates that given within this tradition is the possibility of freezing the black image into a cliche, but also the subversion of minstrel stereotypes. The consistent maintenance of the minstrel frame, and the presence of the motifs of black folklore therein, the social critique exercised within the adapted minstrel ritual, all prove that Twain identified the minstrel tradition as a mixed (white as well as black; upper as well as lower class; inter-racial), as well as radical (abolitionist) tradition. It is an entirely different matter, however, that by the 1880s, the time of the publication of the novel, out of the inner tensions and ambivalences which governed the shows, primarily not the liberating forces had proved viable with respect to blacks but rather the harmful stereotypes. This is why Ralph Ellison in his analysis of the novel could state: "Twain fitted Jim into the outlines of the minstrel tradition, and it is from behind this stereotype mask that we see Jim's dignity and human capacity

—and Twain's complexity

—emerge" (60). WORKS CITED Bell, Bernard. "Twain's 'Nigger' Jim: The Tragic Face Behind the Minstrel Mask." Satire or Evasion? Black Perspectives on Huckleberry Finn. Ed. James S. Leonard, et al. Durham: Duke UP, 1992. 124-140. Berret, Anthony J. "Huckleberry Finn and the Minstrel Show." American Studies 27.2 (1986) 37-49. Ellison, Ralph. Shadow and Act. New York: New American Library, 1966. Fishkin, Shelley Fisher. Was Huck Black? Mark Twain and African American Voices. New York: Oxford, 1993. Lott, Eric. "Mr. Clemens, and Jim Crow: Twain, Race, and Blackface." The Cambridge Companion to Mark Twain. Ed. 275