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Mark
Twain
Name:
Mark Twain (Samuel Langhorne Clemens) (American)
Genre: fiction, historical fiction, children´s literature, non-fiction travel literature satire, etc.
Time period: 1835 – 1910
Significant features: The Adventures of Tom Sayer –contrasts the worlds of children and adults, use
of American colloquial speech with its various dialects
At mid-career, with Huckleberry Finn, he combined rich humor, sturdy narrative and social criticism.
Twain was a master at using colloquial speech and helped to create and popularize a distinctive
American literature built on American themes and language. Many of Twain's works have been
suppressed at times for various reasons. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn has been repeatedly
restricted in American high schools, not least for its frequent use of the word "nigger," which was in
common usage in the pre-Civil War period in which the novel was set.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_twain (7. 10. 2012)
Significant work: novels: The Adventures of Tom Sayer
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
The Prince and the Pauper
The Mysterious Stranger
Other pieces of work: tales and sketches: The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County, and
Other Sketches (his first tale – brought him fame)
Roughing it – autobiographical
Mark Twain´s Sketches, New and Old,
A Tramp Abroad
Life on Mississippi – autobiographical
The 1,000,000 Pound Bank- Note and Other Stories
Personal life: grew up in Missouri, his father died when he was 12, he never finished elementary
school, he learnt from his observation of people and events, experience and books, at 16 he started to
publish some of his own writings, at 17 he left home and went to NY, he came back at 21 – he could
not live without the Mississippi River, he became a steamboat pilot, the origin of his pen name comes
from the expression ´Mark twein´ (old word for two) – used for measuring the depth of the river,
later he joined his brother in Nevada (experienced silver mining fever), then he travelled to Europe and
Middle East, later he married and lived happily in Connecticut
After financial losses, they lived in Europe (cheaper living)
As he grew older he was more pessimistic about people
„I came in with Halley´s Comet in 1835. It is coming again this year, and I expect to go out with it. It
will be the greatest disappointment of my life if I don´t go out with Halley´s Comet.“ – his comment
shortly before his death
Other important/interesting facts: he is called the true father of modern American literature
Source: BRENDLOVÁ, Světla a NOVY, Jan Lindsey. Literatura anglicky mluvících zemí = A survey of
literature in English-speaking countries. 1. vyd. Plzeň: Fraus, 1998. 144 s. ISBN 80-85784-31-9.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_twain (7. 10. 2012)
jméno autora
Kateřina Csibová
název projektu
Informatika a digitální technika
číslo projektu
CZ.1.07/1.5.00/34.0158
číslo šablony
předmět/ třída
(ročník)
pořadové číslo
DUM
III/2 Inovace výuky pomocí ICT
datum
20. 9. 2012
název DUM
Mark Twain
metodická
poznámka k
využití
Výuková prezentace literárního autora určená pro frontální výuku. Možnost využití
pro samostudium, prezentaci v hodině, opakování, test, atd. Také lze doplnit
obrázky, ukázkami z děl, internetovými materiály dle výběru a potřeb vyučujícího.
Anglický jazyk/oktáva
12