An Analysis of Mark Twain’s Humor开题报告

1. 研究目的与意义（文献综述包含参考文献）

an analysis of mark twains humor浅析马克吐温之幽默观1.introductionmark twain is one of the most prominent novelists in american literature, a representative critical writer of realistic literature and a famous humorist in the mid and late nineteenth century. during his life, mark twain created a great number of works. his works are famous for humor and satire. after all, he says, humor is a saving force. he is good at using humor to create comedy plots, and combining with rational thinking, in order to favorably extract the "little" of ordinary people to poignantlyreveal the real society of america in the late nineteenth century and severely criticizes it. thus, mark twain is called as the mirror of america. his works are often under the surface of humor, funny and exaggeration, which exposes the united states and existing problems of human society, humorously and wittily reveals the life of good and evil, beauty and ugliness, incisively and vividly expresses his love or hate. in fact, mark twains humor is the outstanding heritage of american literature and he pushes humor to a new height by using humor and irony in his novels. the main purpose of this thesis is to discuss mark twain's humor by combining with the previous researches, analyzing and appreciating mark twain's novels, especially running for governor, the adventures of huckleberry finn and the million pound note. 2.literature reviewfor a long time, mark twain's literary contributions have attracted much attention. scholars at home and abroad have made profound studies on the historical value and practical significance of his literary works. besides, the humor and satire in his works has been discussed from generation to generation. zheng (2008) holds that mark twain's early writings show that this seemingly light-hearted and imaginative humorist was in fact a serious social critic. the adventures of huckleberry finn, one of mark twain's early novels, tells the story of a white boy named huckleberry who vagabonds the mississippi river with jim, a runaway slave. but mark twain uses the first person to narrative the story, colloquialism and unites humor with irony. phelps (1907) believes that mark twain's humor is a typical american humor with the characteristics of asymmetry, exaggeration and anti-tradition.this kind of humor is not the humor of d.c. owen - he's imitating edison or thackeray. mark twain's humor was not reserved but rather direct. it is intimate, and sometimes expresses the writer's anger. marcus cunliffe once praised mark twains colloquialism. he said, "in his hands, comic jargon and dialect became a finished literary weapon, unemphatic, visual, and deceptively simple.sounding like speech and yet not quite the same". (marcus cunliffe, 1985: 161) and in this novel, he not only criticizes the feudal family's savage duels, exposes the irrational lynching, and satirizes hypocrisy and folly of religion, condemns the sin of slavery, he also sings in praise of good quality of slaves and proposes that every ethnicity has the right to freedom.many scholars speak highly of mark twain and his works. as american literary critic, william howells, says: "emerson, longfellow, lowell, holmesi knew them all and all the rest of our sages, poets, seers, critics, humorists;they were like one another and like other literary men;but clemens was sole, incomparable, the lincoln of our literature."(howells, 1910: 187) howellss evaluation not only affirms the important position of mark twain in american literature but also points outthe irony and dissatisfaction of mark twain to the political and capitalist society through humor in his works. in the study of mark twain's humor, many scholars hold such a view.as engels put it in a letter to marx, history becomes more and more ironic. and the so-called legal election in capitalist society has almost become the highest form of expression of this social tone. it was mark twain who put this humor into a real social context. mark twain himself said, "humor is immortal only if it is based on real life." he said so and did so. at that time, the election of "freedom" in the united states was a trump card advocating freedom and democracy in the capitalist world. mark. twain chooses the election as the subject, exposes the insider of the election, vividly describes that the so-called "free election" of capitalism is purely deceptive lies.running for governor is a wonderful portrayal of this "free election" in the united states. the work is full of humorous language, hilarious plots and funny scenes which reveal the campaign scandal and making a bitter satire on the capitalist electoral system and the so-called democratic system.at the end of his writing, because of his despair for the capitalist society, mark twain no longer hoped that the simple humorous way could save the american society. thus, in his later writing career, marktwain's works are mainly in forms of humor such as biting satire and direct lash, comic humor form secondarily. in the million pound note, mark twain is good at using exaggeration to amplify some dirty things in life. so, he could describe the things vividly.such writing techniques can take the effects of exposing capitalist societys artificial democracy,revolting against ethnic discrimination andtaunting money omnipotence.mark twains anger to capitalist society was conveyed bystrong irony. in the book the real mark twain, xu (1981) pointed out that "it is too absolute and one-sided to think that the bright humor of mark twain in the early period has died out in the later period, and only the biting satire is the style in the later period". hethinks that in mark twain's later works and autobiography of mark twain, there are still many lyric, lively, humorous discourse, even in his work the mysterious stranger, which is full of the pessimism many people thought, however exactly is filled with extreme anger. he also discusses the humor and irony, affirms the invincible power of laugh and mentions the fusion of humor and irony. therefore, xu (1981) believes that the combination of humor and satire, which contains wisdom and justice, may be the true portrayal of mark twain in art.faulkner declared, in my opinion, mark twain was the first truly american writer, and all of us since are his heirs, who descend from him". (chang, 2003)3.conclusionwith his great works, mark twain pushed american realism literature to the peak of the world in the 19th century, which also establishing his unshakable position in the history of american literature and even the history of world literature.mark twain's creative practice has a profound influence on the literature of later generations, which is mainly reflected on the unique style of his works.the significance of this research is to explore mark twains humor in different periods and understand the reasons for his change, as well as know the significance of mark twains humor and apply this humorous wisdom to our study and life.in mark twain's humorous art, the most important is comic humor and satirical humor, this thesis study hispure comedy humor in the early works, which gradually developed to comic humor and satirical humor in the middle and later period, through his three works. the political satire and humor combined with strong emotion of love and hate humor that is also why his humor art is original, exemplary, and timeless. he is trulya master of humor in the world. mark twain's humor is a kind of humor which is built on the deep insight of the world and human beings. it is a kind of humor that combines the wisdom of philosophers, the imagination of artists and the penetrating humor of social critics. his works are based on rich thoughts, in the form of witty words, and full of profound philosophy and strong artistic appeal.because of the unique art of humor and satire, mark twain's works, no matter how long they last, will be of great charm and leave a valuable literary wealth for the world literary world.referencescunliffe, m. (1986). the literature of the united states. ny: penguin florence, d. (1997). persona and humor in mark twains early writings. american literature, 69(2), 419-420.howells, w. d. (1910). my mark twain. ny: harper吐温小说中的幽默与讽刺艺术， 《现代交际》， 9: 113-114。

李文俊（编）（2019），《马克吐温 幽默小说》。

上海：上海文艺出版社。

2. 研究的基本内容、问题解决措施及方案

Methods and procedures of the studyThe main problem to solve is exploring writing techniques of Mark Twain, and on this basis to analyze the shift from comic humor to satirical humor. At last, we can know the significance of Mark Twains humor. The fundamental research method of this paper is to demonstrate by examples.Through the artistic techniques of Mark Twain's three works, this thesis analyzes the expression form of his humor.For example, in Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain used first-person narration, colloquial description, personification and exaggerated to reflect the humorous effect, which was also Mark Twain's early comic humor.To analyze Mark Twains humor, the essential step is to read Twains works in detailed and analyze the writing techniques and his writing style in his novels.Besides, I collect the necessary materials and references from the online campus library and follow other works which are studying Mark Twain, his novels and the view of humor. Because before this, my understanding of humor is not deep enough. In order to successfully complete this thesis, I have caught up with the definition of humor at home and abroad, and inquired the researches of Chinese and western scholars on Mark Twain's Humor. Among these different kinds of information, the most important is those famous scholars different findings and evaluations of Mark Twain and his humorous writing techniques. For example, when it comes to the later period of Mark Twains writings, some scholars holds that humor was abandoned in favor of tragedy. However, others believe that Mark Twains humor is just filled with anger and the bright humor still exists.This thesis consist of four parts. The first part is a brief introduction of Mark Twain and his achievements, as well as the purpose of this thesis. The second part which is the essential part is literature review of Mark Twains humor, where summaries of previous studies. The third part is to briefly express the methods and procedures of the study. In the fourth part will draw a conclusion of the study.