Date of Award
Summer 8-7-2024
Degree Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts (MA)
Department
English
First Advisor
Mark Noble, PhD.
Second Advisor
Gina Caison, PhD.
Third Advisor
Constance Bailey, PhD.
Abstract
Mark Twain’s A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court critiques the failures of the U.S. Reconstruction era, as it demonizes the formation of the Lost Cause mythology in the post-Civil War period, using a parody of the Arthurian mythology of the medieval period, and chastises the emergence of American imperialism. This study explores Twain’s effort to counter to the revisionism project of the Lost Cause, in which a fictionalized Camelot represents the U.S. South, and in so doing redirects its reader’s attention to the violent culture of white supremacy. He parodies Civil War nostalgia through Morgan’s criticism of canonical Arthurian figures who had often been likened Civil War generals and soldiers by Lost Cause supporters. At the same time, the novel also situates Hank Morgan as a robber-baron who exploits the world of Camelot and forces upon its people his nineteenth century technology, infrastructure, and industrialism, imitating the emerging politics of foreign intervention in the late nineteenth century. The novel makes apparent that the result of U.S. intervention results in more violence and chaos.
DOI
https://doi.org/10.57709/37396091
Recommended Citation
Lyons, Jessica, "“A Blot Upon Darkness:” A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court and the Failures of Reconstruction." Thesis, Georgia State University, 2024.
doi: https://doi.org/10.57709/37396091
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