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<font size=4>For the past four years, I have taught a class titled
"Dialect Voices in Literature," in which there are usually a
handful of African-American students. We have consistently declared Alice
Walker's representation of AAE in <font size=4><i>The Color
Purple</i><font size=4> rather stereotypical, if not inept. An earlier
example of such misrepresentation may be found in Richard Wright's
<font size=4><i>Uncle Tom's Children</i><font size=4>. <br>
<br>
What led me to offer this course is sheer accident.
About 6 years ago, I stumbled on a novel by Albert French (an African
American), titled <font size=4><i>Billy</i><font size=4>. It was
acclaimed on the back cover as the best novel written in dialect since
Tony Morrison's <font size=4><i>Beloved</i><font size=4>. The setting is
on a cotton plantation of Mississippi in the 1940s. I was appalled when I
skimmed through it right there in the bookstore. I thought the language
of the White characters should have been in the mouths of the Black
characters (too) and that of the Black characters belonged in no-man's
land. However, the plot was impeccably put together.<br>
<br>
Sali.<br>
<br>
</font><font size=3>At 08:27 AM 2/27/2001 -0800, you wrote:<br>
>Hi Arnold:<br>
><br>
>I can't think of a recent novel or short story offhand, but media
coverage<br>
>of the Ebonics controversy produced lots of inept
representations,<br>
>including Jack White's "Ebonics According to Buckwheat"
column for Time<br>
>(Jan 13, 1997), and other examples discussed in the "Media"
and "Ebonics<br>
>Humor" chapters of _Spoken Soul_ (the book I wrote with my son
Russell<br>
>last year). And of course there are lots of similar examples
from<br>
>minstreal parodies of the 19th century. Hope this is
helpful.<br>
><br>
>John<br>
><br>
><br>
>On Thu, 22 Feb 2001, Arnold Zwicky wrote:<br>
><br>
>><br>
>> i have an undergraduate student who's looking for a novel<br>
>> in which aave is represented ineptly, by someone (white or<br>
>> black) from outside aave-speaking communities.
ideally,<br>
>> a fairly recent novel, with an urban setting (this is so<br>
>> the student can take advantage of knowing about the
variety<br>
>> in modern urban settings). this is a small project,
so<br>
>> even short stories or journalism might do; it's not like<br>
>> the student will be doing statistics on the data - just<br>
>> getting a qualitative feel for it.<br>
>><br>
>> any suggestions?<br>
>><br>
>> arnold (zwicky@csli.stanford.edu)<br>
>><br>
>><br>
>><br>
> </font><br>
<font color="#800000">**********************************************************<br>
Salikoko S.
Mufwene
</font><font color="#800080">s-mufwene@uchicago.edu<br>
</font><font color="#800000">University of
Chicago
</font><font color="#800080">773-702-8531; FAX 773-834-0924<br>
</font><font color="#800000">Department of Linguistics<br>
1010 East 59th Street<br>
Chicago, IL 60637<br>
</font><font color="#000000"><a href="http://humanities.uchicago.edu/humanities/linguistics/faculty/mufwene.html" eudora="autourl">http://humanities.uchicago.edu/humanities/linguistics/faculty/mufwene.html</a><br>
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