Huckleberry Finn and its Afterlives (AMSTUD 216, ENGLISH 216)

How did Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn change American literature? How did it come to be viewed as representative of the nation in which it was produced? How have Black writers viewed the book from the 1930s to the present? How have reactions to the racial politics of the book changed over time? This course will examine the evolution of responses to the best-known American novel around the world. It will explore adaptions of it in films made in the US, Ukraine, and Romania by American, Soviet, and German directors; translations of it into some of the 67 languages into which it has been translated; and literary sequels to it penned by other writers, including Percival Everett's 2024 novel, James.