ABSTRACT
Poole looks into the ways Grace King’s interest in Mark Twain’s humorist style inspires her own texts. A close reading of her short story “An Affair of the Heart” discloses that indeed King, who otherwise is not known for her humor, participates in the tradition of Southern humorist writing. Her use of a rhetoric of excess that on the surface seems melodramatic veils an underlying irony which reveals a scenario of social satire. Through this intricate strategy, King makes fun of the South’s rigid gendered system, debunking sexual and racial double standards. “An Affair of the Heart” may thus serve as an entryway into viewing King’s oeuvre more generally in the light of Southern humor.
