New edition of 'Huckleberry Finn' walks the line between political correctness and censorship Books & Movies, posted by , a resident of , on Jan 6, 2011 at 12:19 pm
Next month, NewSouth Books will publish a combined edition of Mark Twain's "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" and "Tom Sawyer" which will omit a particular racial epithet. Spearheaded by Twain scholar and Auburn University-Montgomery professor Alan Gribben, the new edition will remove the word "n----r" and/or substitute it for "slave." The word appears in "Huck Finn" over 200 times.
Read the full story here Web Link posted Thursday, January 6, 2011, 12:14 PM
Posted by Jessica Lipsky, a resident of San Ramon, on Jan 6, 2011 at 12:19 pm
Local librarians and Alan Gribben all bring up important points. I'd love to hear what the community thinks about this.
Huck Finn is required reading for eleventh grade students in SRVUSD - are high school juniors old enough to understand Twain's language and social critique?
Posted by Jessica Senden, a resident of San Ramon, on Jan 6, 2011 at 2:35 pm
Having read Huck Finn at California High School, it concerns me more to think that students at that level wouldn't understand both the context in which the word is used, the time period in which it was written, and the perspective of the author in terms of the word's use. Granted, a student on their own may not understand all of those points on their own, but isn't that why this piece of literature is required to be taught in class rather than just being a piece of suggested reading? With the guidance of a teacher, it shouldn't be all that difficult for students in 11th grade to at least appreciate these points and recognize that there is a value in examining these sorts of issues that may be objectionable or controversial.
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