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- Title
Pudd' nhead Wilson Mark Twain and the Limits of Detection.
- Authors
Whitley, John S.
- Abstract
The article presents author's narrative of the purpose of writing this literature is to show how the process of detection was cited in Mark Twain's writings throughout his career, usually but by no means inevitably in a parodic manner, and that Pudd'nhead Wilson needs to be understood as a serious, indeed, tragic parody of the detective story, one which turned most of Twain's models on their heads in order to demonstrate that a supposedly successful detective denouement (what Fiedler elsewhere describes as "Pudd'nhead's book- a success story ") is deliberately allowed to work against its normal function in a detective novel. I will say of Twain as that notorious hater of detective stories.
- Subjects
LITERATURE; AUTHORS; TWAIN, Mark, 1835-1910; MYSTERY fiction; PARODY; SATIRE
- Publication
Journal of American Studies, 1987, Vol 21, Issue 1, p55
- ISSN
0021-8758
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1017/S0021875800005491