COURSES > LIFELONG | COURSES > ONLINE

Modern authors have something of a penchant for writing various types of “replies” to classic works of yore. Think: Tom Stoppard’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead as an expansion of Shakespeare’s Hamlet; Margaret Atwood’s Penelopiad as a response to Homer’s Odyssey; and John Gardner’s Grendel as a retelling of Beowulf. Now, Percival Everett has “replied” to Mark Twain’s classic The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn with his latest novel, James. This course will be devoted to a close reading of both Twain’s original classic and Everett’s modern “reply”, with a view to understanding each work in its own right as well as appreciating the “conversation” between them.

Texts

• Twain, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
• Everett, James: A Novel

TAUGHT: WINTER 2025