Rewriting – or Righting – History?

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January 5, 2011

The latest edition of Huckleberry Finn has had THAT word removed.

Does such censorship destroy art – or is it long overdue? What happens when one of the greatest novels and one of the most offensive words in American history collide? This article by Twain scholar Peter Messent provides a starting point for that discussion.

BSKY

Alison Ruth Barry

Alison is originally from London but now delights in calling San Francisco home. Back in the old country, Alison edited a poetry fanzine and promoted a variety of spoken word events. Since then she has collaborated on satirical sketches, short plays and performance art. She writes poetry and creative non-fiction and is currently pursuing a creative writing MFA.

One response

Brian Spears

January 5, 2011

I can understand why New South is doing this, though I disagree with their plan and think it’s wrong-headed in a number of ways. It should be noted that this is only one edition by one publisher. Huck Finn will still have the n-word in it in most copies you can find, so I think this plan is causing more uproar than is really necessary, though I’m glad there’s a discussion about it.

New South is saying that the reason they’re doing it is so that Huck Finn will be considered teachable in high schools again. Parents object to the word (why they object is a matter for a far wider discussion) and it makes a lot of teachers uncomfortable with teaching it (again, for a variety of reasons). New South claims that the novel is powerful enough that it can still provide young readers with a way of looking at racism and at the time even without that word being included in it, and that having the book available even in a bowdlerized form is better than having it banned. And for some, that will be a persuasive argument.

It isn’t for me, but I’ll also cop to being uncomfortable when I teach poems with that word in them, and I teach at the university level. At the high school level, I might back away from it, just because I could’t trust that the students would be willing or able to have a mature discussion about the subject. And what’s worse, I wouldn’t trust many of the people who are currently teachers to lead a mature discussion about race using that book, with or without the word in it.

But at least if the word is there, you can’t hide from it, and by removing the word, you make it possible for teachers with an agenda to downplay the level of racism that Twain is writing about. I’m talking about the kind of teacher who shows “Gone With the Wind” and suggests it’s an accurate telling of antebellum life in the south (Natasha Trethewey used that example in her book Native Guard, but it happened to me as well). So I have to argue for its inclusion, and hope for continued progress in our ability to talk maturely about race.