Summarizes recent theorists' explorations of "whiteness" and discusses what the author sees as the difficulties that can occur when scholars attempt to incorporate these analyses into classroom lectures and discussions. Offers tentative suggestions for alternative approaches that investigate whiteness while deconstructing race. (TB)

Asserts that rigorous historicism might change the following: (1) American literary study, by dropping the traditional nationalist project; (2) the notion of canon, by abandoning it; (3) and the institutional structure that supports academic literary criticism, by interrogating current critical conversation and, by recuperating its history,…

Looks at the use of the term "nigger" in "Huckleberry Finn" as central to the text. Regards the novel as a kind of meditation on the word "nigger" and as an attempt by Twain to explore the construction and maintenance of racial identity. Examines the present historical and pedagogical moment as part of the reception…