Masters Theses

Date of Award

8-1989

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts

Major

English

Major Professor

Allison R. Ensor

Committee Members

William Shutt, Edward Bratton

Abstract

The purpose of this thesis is to examine how Mark Twain effectively used musical references in his five travel books to create humor. Chapter 1 focuses on Twain's own musical background and how his varied musical experiences both at home and abroad played a role in determining why he predominately chose hymns, popular songs, folk ballads, and opera as objects of satire in his travel books. Chapter 2 deals with Twain's use of hymns as a source of humor and how the tone of this humor changes as he observes the attitudes of his fellow travelers and examines his own personal voyage through life in The Innocents Abroad (1869), Life on the Mississippi (1883), and Following the Equator (1897). Chapter 3 shows how Twain used popular songs and folk ballads as a means of humorously critiquing the preconceived ideas of his fellow travelers in Following the Equator (1897), The Innocents Abroad (1869), Roughing It (1872), Life on the Mississinoi (1883), and A Tramp Abroad (1880). Chapter 4 explores Twain's humorous treatment of opera in The Innocents Abroad (1869) and A Tramp Abroad (1880). In his role as plain-speaking American observer, he satirizes the various customs and attitudes of Americans, Italians, and Germans regarding opera. Chapter 5 demonstrates that Twain used musical experiences garnered from excursions in his native land and abroad to create humorous, but distinctively American impressions of different people and places in his travel books.

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