"'It's a Cu'ous Thing ter Me, Suh': The Distinctive Narrative Innovation of Literary Dialect in Late-Nineteenth Century American Literature"
Year: 2016
Type: article
Abstract: American literature and verse advanced in dialectal writing during the late-nineteenth century. Charles Chesnutt’s “The Goophered Grapevine” (1887), “Po’ Sandy” (1888), and “Hot-Foot Hannibal” (1899); Joel Chandler Harris’ Uncle Remus: His Songs and His Sayings (1881); Thomas Nelson Page’s “Marse Chan” (1884); and Mark Twain’s “Sociable Jimmy” (1874) and “A True Story, Repeated Word for Word as I Heard It” (1874) provided diverse dialect representations. Dialect expanded into poetry with James Whitcomb Riley’s “She ‘Displains’ It” (1888), “When the Frost is on the Punkin” (1882), and “My Philosofy” (1882) and Paul Laurence Dunbar’s “The Spellin’ Bee” (1895), “An Ante-Bellum Sermon” (1895), and “To the Eastern Shore” (1903). Dialect styles and how they conveyed political or social perspectives are assessed. Correspondence between late-nineteenth century literary figures as well as periodical reviews reveal attitudes toward the use of dialect. Reader responses to dialect based on their political or social interpretations are explored.
DOI: 10.25772/f975-qa72
Author: Goering, Kym
Language: English
Subfield: Literature and Literary Theory
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2586031431
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