Submitted by tomash on 8 December, 2009 - 09:02.
11. 12. 2009
J. Semrau
Dead but alive, alive but dead. The dead father in Huckleberry Finn
In memory of Andrzej Kopcewicz (1934-2007)
Even though Mark Twain delineated Huck’s father with intensity and depth beyond immediate plot requirements, Pap Finn tends to get naturalized (read: dismissed) as the single most obvious character in the world of the novel. For the son, however, the father remains throughout an essential node of reference, coordination and relevance. The aim of the presentation is to properly acknowledge the figure of Pap as part of the existential facticity of Huckleberry Finn. The textual analysis will concentrate on chapters 3-10, 12-13, 16-18, 21-22 – with an intertextual nod to Donald Barthelme’s postmodern classic The Dead Father and James Joyce’s book-of-all-books Finnegans Wake.
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Michael Hornsby examines, in his paper, the phenomenon of neo-speakers in Brittany and Scotland. Two forces conspire to produce neo-speakers; on the one hand, efforts geared towards language revitalization and on the other globalization, which provides opportunities for minority groups. This inevitably leads to language hybridization and creates tension between neo- and traditional speakers.
