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“‘It’s a Cu’ous Thing ter Me, Suh’: The Distinctive Narrative Innovation of Literary Dialect in Late-Nineteenth Century American Literature”

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.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:vcu.edu/oai:scholarscompass.vcu.edu:etd-5650
Date01 January 2016
CreatorsGoering, Kym M
PublisherVCU Scholars Compass
Source SetsVirginia Commonwealth University
Detected LanguageEnglish
Typetext
Formatapplication/pdf
SourceTheses and Dissertations
Rights© The Author

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