The Controversy over Huckleberry Finn

Abstract

In this article, I try to shed light on some of the arguments around the controversy over Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn, and point to the suitability of such texts in the educational context of Iraq and the Kurdistan Region. Both the thematic features and the controversial nature of the text give people involved in the learning process opportunities to enrich cultural and educational experiences. Discussing the controversy around the novel in the Iraqi and Kurdish educational institutions is especially important. This is because examining the way race operates in the novel and discussing the issues that arouse by teaching such a text in a multicultural classroom provide learners the opportunity to identify with the experiences, critically analyze concepts and construct knew knowledge by relating to the individual and collective understandings. The implication of such analysis for the discussion of race in classrooms, as political as it is, also provides a pedagogical opportunity to talk about race and racism. Discussing the controversies around literary works like Huckleberry Finn also leads us to further explore the aims of education.