Mark Twain's Structures of Credulity

FAIN: FR-10138-78

James L. Busskohl
Eastern Washington University (Cheney, WA 99004-1619)

To study the underlying pattern of Mark Twain's stories: a narrator (usually called Mark Twain) tries to make his readers more skeptical by telling them a story exposing the consequences of credulity. This pattern combines the theme of credulity, a plot exposing the consequences of credulity, general character roles such as the deceiver and the deceived, and a method of narration whose aim is, through playing ontological games with the reader, to enlighten through deception.