Mark Twain And Metaphor

Delving into the psychological aspects of metaphor to reveal Twains attitudesand thoughts Bird shows how using metaphor as a guide to Twain reveals muchabout hi... » 

Delving into the psychological aspects of metaphor to reveal Twains attitudesand thoughts Bird shows how using metaphor as a guide to Twain reveals muchabout his composition process. From The Jumping Frog to the late dreamnarratives Bird considers Twains metaphoric construction over his completecareer and especially sheds new light on his central texts. He reconsiders OldTimes on the Mississippi as the most purely metaphorical of Twains writingsgoes on to look at how Twain used metaphor and talked about it in a variety ofworks and genres and even argues that Clemenss pseudonym is not so much analter ego as a metaphorized self. In addition to dealing with issues currentlycentral to Twain studies such as race and gender Bird also links metaphor tohumor and dream theory to further illuminate topics central to Twains work. «