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The American writer Samuel Clemens — better known as Mark Twain — wrote that "the difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter."
Now, a new edition containing Twain's "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" and "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" will test the truth of that assertion by replacing the "N-word" with "slave" in an effort not to offend readers.
Twain scholar Alan Gribben is working with NewSouth Books in Alabama to publish the combined volume. He notes that the N-word — a 21st century euphemism for an extremely offensive racial slur — appears 219 times in "Huckleberry Finn" and four times in "Tom Sawyer."
Gribben believes the word puts the books in danger of joining the list of literary classics that Twain himself once defined as those "which people praise and don't read." He also plans to replace what might be called the "In-word," an offensive term for Native Americans used as a nickname in "Tom Sawyer."
Academics have been debating Twain's racially provocative vocabulary for decades. But the rubber meets the road in the nation's high school classrooms, where "Tom Sawyer" and especially "Huckleberry Finn" often serve as an introduction to the work of a man generally regarded as foundational to American literature.
Janet Jelavich, an English teacher at Maryville High School with more than three decades' experience in the classroom, said she sympathizes with the problem but disagrees with Gribben's solution
Jelavich said she is an "old school" opponent of censorship, even when the censor's scissors are used to make classic material more acceptable to those who might otherwise skip it altogether. But she also realizes that some things incorporated into literature — like the N-word or drug abuse — can be so upsetting or volatile that they interfere with the learning process.
With regard to "Huckleberry Finn," Jelavich's own decision has been simply not to teach it. She said that any number of other works by Twain, who enjoyed a long and prolific career, are perfectly appropriate for high schoolers.
In Maryville, where the student body is fairly homogenous in terms of race and culture, "Huckleberry Finn" might not pose a problem, Jelavich said. She added, however, that she has taught the book in diverse settings, and that it made African American students "very uncomfortable," especially if most of the other students were white.
The American writer Samuel Clemens — better known as Mark Twain — wrote that "the difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter."
Now, a new edition containing Twain's "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" and "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" will test the truth of that assertion by replacing the "N-word" with "slave" in an effort not to offend readers.
Twain scholar Alan Gribben is working with NewSouth Books in Alabama to publish the combined volume. He notes that the N-word — a 21st century euphemism for an extremely offensive racial slur — appears 219 times in "Huckleberry Finn" and four times in "Tom Sawyer."
Gribben believes the word puts the books in danger of joining the list of literary classics that Twain himself once defined as those "which people praise and don't read." He also plans to replace what might be called the "In-word," an offensive term for Native Americans used as a nickname in "Tom Sawyer."
Academics have been debating Twain's racially provocative vocabulary for decades. But the rubber meets the road in the nation's high school classrooms, where "Tom Sawyer" and especially "Huckleberry Finn" often serve as an introduction to the work of a man generally regarded as foundational to American literature.
Janet Jelavich, an English teacher at Maryville High School with more than three decades' experience in the classroom, said she sympathizes with the problem but disagrees with Gribben's solution
Jelavich said she is an "old school" opponent of censorship, even when the censor's scissors are used to make classic material more acceptable to those who might otherwise skip it altogether. But she also realizes that some things incorporated into literature — like the N-word or drug abuse — can be so upsetting or volatile that they interfere with the learning process.
With regard to "Huckleberry Finn," Jelavich's own decision has been simply not to teach it. She said that any number of other works by Twain, who enjoyed a long and prolific career, are perfectly appropriate for high schoolers.
In Maryville, where the student body is fairly homogenous in terms of race and culture, "Huckleberry Finn" might not pose a problem, Jelavich said. She added, however, that she has taught the book in diverse settings, and that it made African American students "very uncomfortable," especially if most of the other students were white.
A certain amount of intellectual discomfort probably ought to be part of the learning process, Jelavich admitted, but not if it exceeds students' ability to handle it.
"At the college level, teach whatever you want," she said, adding that middle school and high school teachers need to balance curriculum content with the maturity level of their students.
Still, the idea of removing selected words just to make the book more palatable to some students makes Jelavich nervous.
"Do I think they need to go through and change it?" she asked. "I don't know that I would change Twain's work."
Jelavich also believes there are options besides dropping the book from the curriculum altogether, including silent reading in class or placing it on a suggested reading list. She said she would never try to dissuade students from reading "Huckleberry Finn" on their own.
Another Twain scholar, Stephen Railton of the University of Virginia, said Gribben was well respected, but called the expurgated version "a terrible idea."
Twain's language depicts America's past, said Railton, who has an unaltered version of "Huckleberry Finn" coming out later this year that includes background material on racism and slavery.
Published in the U.S. in 1885, "Huckleberry Finn" is the fourth most-banned book in schools, according to
"Banned in the U.S.A." by Herbert N. Foerstal, the author of several books on First Amendment issues.
–The Associate Press contributed to this article
