A Study on Mark Twain's White Male Sentimentality

2017 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 15K16702
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Literature in English
• Research Institution: Daito Bunka University
• Principal Investigator: Ikoma Kumi 大東文化大学, 文学部, 准教授 (00715063)
• Project Period (FY): 2015-04-01 – 2018-03-31
• Keywords: マーク・トウェイン / 男性性 / 感傷 / 白人性 / 境界線 / 階級 / 人種 / 貧乏白人

Outline of Final Research Achievements

This study has investigated white male sentimentality and sympathy in Mark Twain’s major novels by introducing the analytical concept of “boundary.” When the white men in his novelistic world seek to construct their subjectivity, I argued, they draw and redraw the boundaries between themselves and the others in race, gender, and class by exercising sympathy toward them. Although the existing studies tend to exclusively associate sentimentality with femininity, I have shown that the white male subjectivity in Twain is constructed through their sympathy for the others.

Free Research Field

19世紀アメリカ文学