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Mark Twain's evolutionary humor
Abstract
This work considers Samuel Clemens' philosophies of mind and nature in the context of the emerging nineteenth-century discipline of physiological psychology. Study of Clemens' work in this context suggests that rather than naively repudiating nineteenth-century science in an anti-intellectual attempt to re-create the pastoral age of ante-bellum America, Clemens created a humorous style consistent with the evolutionary theory on which the new psychology was based. The work argues that the purpose, the content and the structure of Clemens' fiction anticipates the functional and pragmatic psychologies of William James and the Chicago School, drawing upon close readings of primary works written between 1870 and 1886, psychological and scientific texts and histories, and scholarly work on humor drawn from anthropological, myth, and literary criticism. Clemens, like the psychologists, defines human consciousness as adaptive response to the environment. The content of his humor typically focuses on the ways in which ingrained and unconscious habits of belief promote maladaptive response, and his humorous performances capitalize on these features of his listeners' intellects to provoke a response to his humor. Typically the storyteller in a Clemens' work fails to achieve his apparent narrative purpose, because of his ingrained patterns of thinking. This defeats the expectations of the audience, because of their own ingrained patterns of thinking. The audience's reaction, a quantifiable physical expression of surprise, represents the adjustment of internal subjective consciousness to objective reality. The humor actually irritates the audience, illustrating the inadequacy of the ingrained belief that Herbert Spencer calls "instinct" and that Clemens himself calls "petrified thought." Clemens' humor forces the audience to consciousness, simulating what the physiological psychologists would later define as "learning." The manipulative character of Clemens' humor mirrors the purposeful agenda of the physiological psychologists who believed that they could legitimize their science by helping Americans adapt successfully to their environments. Rather than resisting the science of his age, Clemens embraces it in order to make humor a respected educational vehicle for his reading and listening public.
Subject Area
American literature
Recommended Citation
Reed, Susan J, "Mark Twain's evolutionary humor" (1991). Doctoral Dissertations Available from Proquest. AAI9132900.
https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations/AAI9132900