Graduation Year
2006
Document Type
Thesis
Degree
M.A.
Degree Granting Department
English
Major Professor
William Morris, Ph.D.
Committee Member
Daniel Belgrad, Ph.D.
Committee Member
Edward Waldron, Ph.D.
Keywords
Middle East, Orientalism, prejudice, racism, West
Abstract
The purpose of this study on Mark Twain's The Innocents Abroad is toinvestigate the various personal and socio-historical reasons for Twain's disrespectful and intolerant depiction of the people of the Middle East in juxtaposition to his lighter treatment of Europeans of the Mediterranean, whom he also wrote about at length in the same travel narrative.The research involves examining the main text, but also considers the long history of Western attitudes towards the Middle East, Twain's prejudicial upbringing, his strong penchant for exaggeration, his sense of opportunism, and the books and contemporary social attitudes that may have influenced his thinking. Research reveals an intricate web of complexity behind Mark Twain's attitude in his writing. It also reveals that the many of his critics fall prey and become entangled inthe very same web of complicated and skewing factors that trapped Twain nearly one hundred and fifty years ago.
Scholar Commons Citation
Bakht, Nancy, "Mocking Mohammad: Mark Twain’s Depiction of Arabs and Muslims in The Innocents Abroad" (2006). USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations.
https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/etd/3907
