"Dancing on the Color Line delivers one of the most observant analyses of Jim's [Adventures of Huckleberry Finn] portrayal ever to have appeared in print. . . . From cover to cover, Dancing on the Color Line proves itself to be a crucial study for appreciating the subtlety of Mark Twain's achievements in racial perspectives on the subject of human slavery depicted in American fiction."
—Mark Twain Journal
"Martin adds to the discussion of race in US fiction an understanding of how the African trickster figure is intertwined with the plots and characters of the works involved, thus shaping the author's sympathies in important ways. With the volume, Martin adds a valuable layer of sophistication of discussion of race in American literature."
—CHOICE
"Dancing on the Color Line explores the familiar world of nineteenth-century US writing about race to defamiliarize it by suggesting its hybrid nature. Through Martin's careful readings, well-known figures emerge as deeply influenced by the aesthetics and techniques of African American storytelling, and their literature reveals multiple trickster figures who turn a critical eye on the white power that frames them. Martin's readers encounter the fiction she discusses differently and with more attention to the complexity of the historical and literary context in which it was created."
—Kathryn McKee, McMullan Associate Professor of Southern Studies and English at the University of Mississippi and coeditor of American Cinema and the Southern Imaginary
"Dancing on the Color Line is a significant contribution to nineteenth-century American literary and cultural studies. Original, illuminating, and meticulously researched, Martin's book examines texts of John Pendleton Kennedy, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Herman Melville, Joel Chandler Harris, and Mark Twain, showing how these writers assimilated and employed black aesthetic strategies of 'signifying' and 'double voice' associated with the trickster figure. Martin lays the groundwork for further scholarly inquiry, particularly regarding possible lines of influence of minority American writers on modern and postmodern canonical authors and their works."
—Ed Piacentino, emeritus professor of English at High Point University and editor of Southern Frontier Humor: New Approaches (University Press of Mississippi)
"Martin has proven to be one of our most important scholars in American humor and culture. Wherever she focuses her attention, and brings to bear her critical intelligence, new insights and useful ideas emerge. Dancing on the Color Line is a thoughtful and enlightening study of the African American trickster figure. The result is a solid contribution to both African American studies and our understanding of the continuously complex nature of American humor."
—M. Thomas Inge, Blackwell Professor of Humanities at Randolph-Macon College and author of many works on American humor, southern culture, comics art, and William Faulkner
