The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn哈克贝利·费恩历险记.pptVIP

A STUDY OF DIALECT The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn The “YES!” Side The “NO WAY!” Side Dialectical accuracy of the novel The “n-word” is there for a reason! Study of various dialects spoken in the novel His portrayal of African-Americans draws on actual African tribal traditions Huck’s decision at the end of shows he is one of the most moral characters of the novel Usage of the word “nigger” over 219 times is offensive Portrayal of African-Americans as “buffoons” and superstitious fools (minstrel-like qualities) Huck is an immoral young boy who is a bad example for youth (he smokes a pipe at the age of 13! Gasp!) The Great Debate: Should the novel be taught in schools? Change for the Better or Worse? In 2/11 a new compilation edition of Huck Finn and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer was released by New South Books and removed all references to “nigger,” “Injun Joe,” and “half-breed” to “slave,” “Indian Joe,” and “half-blood.” “[The] word is terrible, it’s hurtful, but it’s there for a reason to convey the language and attitudes of Missouri in the 1840’s in a book written in the 1880’s when Jim Crow laws were being passed in the South to deprive blacks of their civil rights.” ~ Jeff Nicols (Executive director of the Mark Twain House and Museum in Hartford, Connecticut) Terms to Know Orthography: the representation of the sounds of a language by written or printed symbols Eye-dialect: the literary use of misspellings that are intended to convey a speaker’s lack of education or use of humorously dialectical pronunciations but that are actually no more than respellings of standard pronunciations Vernacular: the plain variety of language in everyday use by ordinary people Is there such thing as too much dialect? “Orthography overindulged is the least subtle way of conveying identity in literature, and sometimes the most offensive” (438). Eye-dialect should be “underground signifying,” or not representing vernacular in a way that shows extreme errors in standard