Teacher as Scholar

My claim to fame in the world of scholarship is an essay I wrote a few years ago titled “Coming Up Empty: Exploring Narrative Omissions in Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” which was included in Twain’s Omissions: Exploring the Gaps as Textual Context, a collection of essays published in 2013 by Cambridge Scholars Publishing.  Of course I wasn’t paid anything for my contribution, nor was I even given a copy of the book; it retailed for $40 so I didn’t buy it.  It was enough to have my essay published.  More noteworthy, however, is the fact that another scholar (Andrew Levy) referenced this essay in the bibliography of his 2014 book Huck Finn’s America: Mark Twain and the Era that Shaped His Masterpiece.  Thank you Google for revealing this tidbit to me.  It feels good to be cited as a source…

I put a lot of work into that essay, although I’m not exactly a Twain scholar by any stretch of the imagination.  My interest in Huckleberry Finn came out of a class I took in grad school on Twain, Howells and James for which I wrote an essay titled “What Humor Hides in Huck Finn.”   When I wrote that essay, it had been years since I had done any literary criticism (as an undergrad at Purchase College in the 1980s I majored in literature).  I thoroughly enjoyed the process of researching and writing that essay and felt compelled to look for additional opportunities to do literary criticism.  This opportunity presented itself in the form of a call seeking papers by the Mark Twain Circle for a panel at the SAMLA convention in 2012.  When I read that “call for papers” (through U-Penn), I knew I had to give it a shot and got to work drafting an abstract.  Ultimately, I was chosen to present on the panel, and although I could not do so, my proposal was accepted for inclusion in the book.

My interest in literary criticism has remained strong, and I frequently consult https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu to find another “call” to answer.  I recently came across one that caught my eye, inviting “contributions that consider new interpretations or approaches to reading or teaching To Kill a Mockingbird.”  When thinking about how I might approach this topic, it occurred to me that a parallel might be drawn between Atticus Finch and Huck Finn.  If I can argue this successfully, I will be able to demonstrate that while Harper Lee and Mark Twain both put the spotlight on racism in their novels, neither was very successful in making a case for equality.  In that way they were both rather tepid attempts to create real awareness, let alone initiate change.  A contemporary review of To Kill a Mockingbird seems to bear this out.  The Chicago Tribune claimed that the novel “is in no way a sociological novel. It underlines no cause. It answers no questions. It offers no solutions. It proposes no programs. It is simply an excellent piece of storytelling.” 

If my proposal is accepted, I will be embarking on a journey that I know I will enjoy.  This will entail close reading of the texts and investigation into what other scholars have to say.  What will my research uncover?  How will I enter into the dialogue?  Most importantly, in what ways can I contribute something valuable to the scholarship?  Because that’s what the “call” is all about –new interpretations.  This is, after all, the ultimate goal in conducting academic research.  And it’s what I try to help my students understand as they go about their own research.  It takes time and it takes practice, but it is well worth the effort.