실용주의와 미국문학

Pragmatic Reading of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

This study is to trace some aspects of pragmatic approaches to truth and experience in Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. William James and Mark Twain were contemporaries. In their writings and their personal lives, they were involved in the examination of how knowledge and morals are developed and preserved by the individual. Since pragmatism is a philosophy connecting itself with experience and perception and with theory with practice, it is important to focus on Huck's narrative. Huck's re-evaluation of himself, from a young boy concerned only with fun to an abolitionist, reveals the heart of early American pragmatist thought. Huck examines his life working with actions, perceptions in context of various situations with the intention of developing new theories concerning human action. According to James and Rorty, everyone reinterprets social theories to meet his or her own practices. One changes his or her personal philosophy at one time or another in response to a new experience or piece of information. This study is an attempt to read Huck Finn's behavior from the perspective of its pragmatic nature.