Dealing With Dark Times – The Changing Forms and Functions of Humor in Mark Twain’s Later Writings Dissertation zur Erlangung des akademischen Grades Dr. phil. genehmigt durch die Fakultät für Humanwissenschaften der Otto-von-Guericke-Universität Magdeburg von: Ksenia Romashova M.A. geb. am: 12. November 1985 in Moskau Gutachter: Prof. Dr. Holger Kersten Prof. Dr. Hans-Werner Breunig Eingereicht am: 28. Januar 2016 Verteidigt am: 22. Juni 2016 2 Table of Contents Preface................................................................................................................................................3 Chapter 1 ............................................................................................................................................4 1.1 Introduction .........................................................................................................................4 1.2 Literature Review ................................................................................................................9 1.3 Review of Scholarly Considerations in the Topic of Humor ............................................... 19 1.4 Review in Scholarly Considerations in the Topic of Humor and Old Age ........................... 30 Chapter 2. Humor in Mark Twain’s Later Writings ........................................................................... 36 2.1 Introduction............................................................................................................................. 36 2.2 Religion and the Human Race ................................................................................................. 43 2.3 The Mysterious Stranger ......................................................................................................... 60 2.4 Animals .................................................................................................................................. 68 2.5 Adam and Eve ......................................................................................................................... 74 2.6 Conclusion .............................................................................................................................. 80 Chapter 3. Mark Twain’s Style of Humor in His Later Public Activities ............................................ 83 3.1 Introduction............................................................................................................................. 83 3.2 Features of Mark Twain’s Humor in His Later Interviews........................................................ 93 3.3 Features of Mark Twain’s Humor in His Later Speeches........................................................ 109 3.4 Major Findings and Conclusion ............................................................................................. 127 Chapter 4. Humor and its Role in Mark Twain’s Later Private Activities ......................................... 130 4.1 Introduction........................................................................................................................... 130 4.2 Features of Mark Twain’s Humor in His Later Private Letters, Autobiographical Dictations and Selected Marginalia .................................................................................................................... 133 4.2.1 Private Letters ................................................................................................................ 133 4.2.2 Selected Marginalia ........................................................................................................ 142 4.2.3 Autobiographical Dictations ........................................................................................... 147 4.3 Humor in Mark Twain’s Correspondence with the “Aquarium Club” ..................................... 154 4.3.1 Introduction .................................................................................................................... 154 4.3.2 Features of Mark Twain’s Humor and is Role in His Correspondence with the “Aquarium Club” ...................................................................................................................................... 158 4.3.3 Major Findings ............................................................................................................... 185 4.4 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................ 187 Chapter 5. Major Findings and Conclusion ...................................................................................... 190 List of References ........................................................................................................................... 195 3 Preface This dissertation is submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at Otto-von- Guericke-Universität Magdeburg, Germany. The research described herein was conducted under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Holger Kersten in the Department of Foreign Languages, Otto-von-Guericke-Universität Magdeburg, between July 2011 and December 2015. I am extremely grateful to my supervisor for his endless support, advice and knowledge. I would like to thank Prof. Dr. Hans-Werner Breunig for his advice and support. I am indebted to “Landesstipendium Sachsen-Anhalt” scholarship for co-funding this project for almost a three-year period, from July 2011 and up to July 2014. I am also grateful to “DAAD Abschlusshilfe” scholarship for a three-month financial support, between September 2014 and December 2014. I would like to thank Dr. Barbara Scnedecor, former Director of Mark Twain Center in Elmira, NY, and Mark Woodhouse, Archivist at Elmira College, for their support and advice. I am indebted to Mark Twain Center in Elmira, NY, for co-funding my short-term research work in Archive at Elmira College in 2013 and 2015. I would like to thank Prof. John Cooley, the editor of Mark Twain’s correspondence with the “Aquarium Club”, who encouraged me to continue my research project on Mark Twain, his life and career. Finally, I take this opportunity to express my gratitude to my family and, especially, to my mother, Liudmila Romashova, for their support and unfailing encouragement. 4 Chapter 1 1.1 Introduction This project arises out of an interest in the ways in which Mark Twain, the famous American writer and humorist of the nineteenth century, had to deal with the hard times of his later years in a variety of his activities, both public and private. According to Van Wyck Brooks (1922), Bernard DeVoto (1940), Hamlin Hill (1973), Susan K. Harris (1982), and, more recently, Michael Shelden (2010), scholarship claims to suggest that Mark Twain's later years can be defined as the final period of overwhelming despair, frustration and pessimism, when Twain's life was predominantly full of personal tragedies and failures. Hamlin Hill defines Twain's later years as a kind of “hell” (Hill xvii). In support of this point of view, Tom Quirk (2007) summarized Twain's moods during his final years in a combination of adjectives like “cynical, bitter, angry, suspicious, irrational, depressed, alienated, lonely, petty and trivial, hurt and hurtful” (Quirk 238). Nevertheless, John S. Tuckey, a prominent scholar and editor of a number of Mark Twain's later manuscripts, suggested in the introduction to Mark Twain's Fables of Man (1972) “to have a balanced view of Mark Twain's works” (Tuckey 8). He also added that there were Twain's later works where “pessimism of such an outlook is mitigated by humor and irony and by the tender-heartedness that is in contention with the works' tough-mindedness” (3-4). These observations prompt to reconsider the role of humor in Mark Twain's later life and career, so that it is possible to suggest a more balanced and complex interpretation of his final years. In the project the choice of the time period will be supported by the suggestions presented in the studies of Harold K. Bush's (2008) and Hamlin Hill's (1973), the central focus of which is devoted to Twain's final years. In his book Mark Twain and the Spiritual Crisis of his Age, Harold K. Bush finds Mark Twain's years of grief and frustration to start in 1895-1896 when Twain “was extremely fatigued” by “the completion of his around-the world tour” (Bush 233), the tour Twain had to initiate because of the business failures and debts. With the death of his beloved daughter Susy on August 18, 1896, the dark times in Twain's final years entered the main phase. In his notebook, Twain recorded briefly “Our Susy died August 18, 1896 – the cloud is permanent now” (Mark Twain's Notebook 354). In his autobiographic notes, Twain gave a deeper and metaphoric description of his feelings and associated the death of Susy to a collapse of his private circle of happiness: “It cannot be replaced [...] It is irrevocably lost [...]” (Autobiography of Mark Twain 324). In support of this perspective, in 5 his book Mark Twain: God's Fool, Hamlin Hill suggests that a turning point in Twain's final years started with the death of Susy and lasted till the very end of his life in 1910. Hill also noticed that Twain's old age had a definite influence upon his growing despair and pessimism – since 1900 “In spite of his boundless energy, Clemens was beginning to feel old” (Hill 6). At the same time, the public did not notice Twain's growing despair or his tiring because of age. In contrast to the scholars' criticism, Twain's contemporaries remarked in 1902 that “his hair is