Barbara A. Sasso
1) The History of English: Discussion on Language and Power and Discovery Draft
One good way to defuse racial or ethnically biased overtones in a discussion of linguistic differences is to present students with a brief history of the English language. English happens to be a very good language to discuss since a cultural and linguistic crisis in the language was created by an invasion of Anglo-Saxon England by the French in 1066. After the Norman invasion and until Chaucer’s time in the mid-14
th
century, the language of the Plantagenet English nobility was
French
. This conquest would transform the language spoken in England over the next three centuries, creating a cultural divide between words such as “dog” and “canine”. The conquered language became the lowly diction of the new language as French and English melded into Anglo-Norman (the “Franglish” of the time) to Middle English, and then to Modern English. But the melding of two different language branches endowed Modern English with endless synonyms, richness, and variety in diction. The spread of English as the British Empire expanded continued to add once “foreign” words to our language. In fact, the very power of English derives from a dynamic linguistic cultural exchange. In effect, our
standard
language serves its purpose in allowing us all to communicate clearly and efficiently, no matter where we come from. But it is the
vernacular
language that has always given it a heartbeat.
This lesson will be presented in a lecture using a Power Point program I have developed.
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The lecture will have a formal discussion afterwards regarding language and power in the world of our students. Students will have the ability to share personal stories and think about how variations in dialect, having an accent, or using a different level of diction shapes how people judge them. Dialects vary from one end of America to another, and also from one end of the Spanish-speaking world to another, and students will be encouraged to follow discussion protocols as likely this exchange will become passionate. Students will read the poem “The Albuquerque Graveyard” by Jay Wright and takes notes to consider what it means to “parse your tongue”
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to cross social and cultural lines in America. Teachers should guide students to realize that linguistic lines are not just ethnic ones, but economic ones as well. Indeed this entire unit might be recast along socio-economic lines, such as is evident in Shaw’s
Pygmalion
or the lovely film version,
My Fair Lady.
Students will discuss suggestions to eliminate use of language variations or attempts to legitimize them. Students will take notes on articles describing moves to legislate English as the official language of the United States, and articles regarding an official designation of African American dialect as Ebonics, and note their own opinions on these issues. Students will also be asked to take notes on a formal discussion on how their own use of language allows them to be expressive. This might be the use of cultural neologisms (slang) or speaking a different language in itself. Are there things you cannot express in English, or in Standard English? When creating characters, how important is it for writers to use language that is realistic?
Students will use their notes as a starting point to write a personal response as a discovery draft for their final papers, including their own experiences at home and school, and in the neighborhood. Some teacher questions might include: How does use of language vary? Are there places where different ways of speaking creates barriers or misunderstanding? Does discrimination occur because of differences in dialect, language or diction? Are there circumstances where you shape your speech differently, depending on where you are? How important is it for writers or musicians to use authentic language when creating characters or songs?
2) Presenting a Historical Context: The Pyramid of Hate and Racist Images
The next step of the unit will present lessons so students can examine how images and language was used from the end of the Civil War to demean and stereotype African Americans and other ethnic groups. It might be wise to specifically explain to students that the images they will view are disturbing, and that knowledge of the history of bias and racism fortifies our ability to counter racism in the present. A brief historical time line that documents the social and political landscape from the end of slavery, to the Jim Crow Era and the Great Northern Migration, the rise of immigration, and the Civil Rights movement is provided in Teacher Resources.
A good place to begin might be the presentation of
The Pyramid of Hate
, a notable image created by the Anti-Defamation League to teach how various ethnic groups have been targeted and dehumanized in a pattern that builds to genocide. It is important to recognize these steps to stop hatred from taking hold. Students will take notes on discussion topics expressed in this image, such as stereotyping, bullying and discrimination, and how perhaps some of these are issues that divide them and their own neighborhoods in violence. What creates hatred? Do we have the power within us to overcome it? Students will write down opinions this topic. By understanding our own strengths, can we depersonalize the hatred directed towards us through discrimination? Do we need to culturally assimilate to avoid prejudice?
Viewing Images of Racism in Historical Context
For this lesson of the unit, students will gather information from images including film and graphic art. Students will begin by viewing an interesting video by Lupe Fiasco
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that questions misogynist and violent lyrics in rap and hip-hop music. The video also references minstrel performances as background images. Students might not be aware of what minstrel was. Viewing a video example from a film such as
Holiday Inn
might be informative, coupled with a brief history of the form.
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Students will take notes during a formal discussion of both videos. Is Lupe Fiasco’s assertion that hip-hop promotes misogyny true? Another video worth viewing is
Hip-Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes
,
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which questions the negative – but profitable – portrayal of young urban black males as “thugs” in hip-hop. Student will then write an analysis on how stereotyping through speech and image fosters hate and affects self-esteem among the target groups. Can target groups also fall into the same pattern of promoting negativity about their own culture?
Students will then view a historic assortment of propaganda images with text or dialogue that were used to justify political isolation and to disempower various groups of minorities, and immigrants including Irish, Italians, Asians and Jews as well as African Americans and Hispanics. There are many available on the Internet and currently on YouTube. It might be interesting for students to view racist cartoons, watched mostly by children. (See Teacher Resources) How effective were these images as indoctrinating tools for young people to see others or themselves? While viewing these, students will take notes and analyze what they see and hear to organize their thoughts for a formal class discussion afterward and provide material for their synthesis papers. Film examples might include
The Birth of a Nation, The Jazz Singer
and
Gone with the Wind.
Are there still examples of denigrating propaganda present in our society, on the Internet or Twitter? Should hate speech be illegal? Have can people counter these images? How can language, in particular used as a means of discrimination? Perhaps as a counter balance, students might view
The Migration
series by Harlem Renaissance painter Jacob Lawrence.
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Students should take notes on all images and classroom discussions for their final synthesis paper.
Exploring Language and Art: The N-Word and Dialect Debate
The next step of the unit examines how dialect and ethnic variations in language enrich our literature, and enrich the artistic expressiveness of students themselves as writers. Let’s code-switch!
But first: Variances in language, including dialect and accents are often nefariously targeted to mock and demean minorities. The language that one speaks is idiomatically referenced as one’s “mother tongue” because it is so inherently comingled with identity and comfort, that to tear one away from it and force one to speak another is an act of violence. To use dialect or accent in dehumanizing ways eats at the soul; it tears out the tongue and serves to silence or annihilate the self. When language is thus raped and made to yield to oppressive forces that dirty and degrade it, can it ever be resurrected to a place of dignity and artistic respect?
For most American immigrants, a natural shift in language happens in the second generation, as children growing up absorb the new language in what Noam Chomsky recognized as the miracle of language acquisition in the human brain. By the third generation, unless isolated in ghettos or a special effort is made, the language of the grandparents is forgotten. In the past, immigrants were escaping brutal conditions from their home countries for the promised land of American, and the effort was decidedly to learn English and to become American. The effect of degradation because of accents or language therefore would only last one generation.
For Spanish speaking populations, the power of linguistic denigration had its effect in the past, but is now washed away under the sheer volume of Spanish-speaking immigrants. In many parts of the country, Spanish is a
de facto
second language. The majority minority group in the United State is now Hispanic, and growing. Globally, Spanish surpasses English as a world language. Politicians in the United States – more Republicans than Democrats – are using their knowledge of Spanish on the campaign trail to win votes.
African American dialect traveled its own route. Consider Democratic Senator Harry Reid’s statement that he could support Barack Obama as a candidate because he was “light skinned” and spoke with “no Negro dialect.”
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Strict racial segregation that included education, housing, and professional isolation made the ability to “pass” linguistically much more difficult and much less desired for African Americans, creating an intractable connection of language to race. The debate takes place within the African American community in a way that is perhaps more poignant and meaningful than outside of it.
While the Teacher Resources in this curriculum unit suggests material to help teachers shape the dialect debate, including the once-promoted teaching of Ebonics, there is one succinct racial epithet that encapsulates this discussion for African American students. It should be fairly easy to cover this topic in a class discussion, especially in an urban setting: The “n-word” debate.
Most of my students over the years have been quite clear on their use of the n-word as a somewhat tender form of address between friends, once in a while, oddly, even directed at white friends. Even when used negatively by black students, it carries no more weight than “dude” might carry for Southern Californians. Be brave. Take a breath. A unit on use of African American dialect cannot avoid this one. Your students will do all the talking, but open the door and ask them what they think of this word. My students will patiently explain that
their
word is spelled and pronounced differently from the heinous one. They will also patiently explain that it would be inappropriate for anyone who is not black, and probably, inappropriate for anyone who is a teacher to comfortably use this word when addressing African American students. For students, the distinction is fairly clear – the word
they
use is simply not the same word as the other one. Or is it? You might want to take a look at Oprah quizzing Jay-Z on this topic as a starter.
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Here is the lively debate then: When and how is dialect
not
hateful, and not discriminatory? What are the rules? When is it appropriate for writers and musicians to use this particular word and other forms of African American speech, and when is it not appropriate? What about stereotypical portrayals? When should one use formal speech instead of informal speech? Are expletives ever allowed? Students will provide enough original commentary, but there are many discussions in articles and online that offer different viewpoints. Based on this probably heated discussion, students will write short papers to argue their particular viewpoints.
To introduce the next section, students will be asked to read and comment on Richard Wright’s essay opposing Zora Neale Hurston’s use of what he perceived was demeaning African American dialect.
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Time to explore literature.
3) Exploration of Literary Use of Dialect and Aesthetics of Oral Tradition
Since the population of Wilbur Cross High School is largely black and Hispanic, my choices of texts for this unit will focus on use of African American dialect and bilingual Spanish in literature. However, the unit suggests other works that use other types of dialect. The texts examined here are works taught in advanced levels, but other texts can be substituted for these. Depending on the academic levels of students, the teacher can choose from among a number of novels, excerpts, or poems.
We might want to consider how to shape a discussion on the literary merits of dialect in texts. Students already will have formulated original thoughts on this in their discovery drafts. In my teaching experience, it is always best to build on the ideas your students give you and work from there. But here are some other things to consider:
The use of dialect evokes pre-literate traditions in literature. The rendering of dialect into text demands oral reading for comprehensibility, and in the transference from text to voice, many powerful elements or oral storytelling return. Walter J. Ong brilliantly illuminates these in a masterful small book called
Orality and Literacy.
One very interesting study he examines by A.R. Luria
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reveals that cultures that are not chirographic
think
differently. Individuals do not formulate logical syllogisms, but think more circumstantially. If I have once seen a black bear, than I cannot imagine a place where theoretically, “all bears are white.” Tools are not all in one category, but have particular purposeful uses. Perhaps a scythe might be retooled to say, cut meat, but it is not the same as a knife. Also, self-analysis is assessed only in context with others, with actions, and with the circumstantial environment. So too, characters in epics, folk tales and mythology worldwide present in a similar fashion: They are dynamic, improvisational, quick to transform, adaptive. Objects exist in the present, not in a symbolic or analytic abstraction. Reality and reckoning depend on setting.
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One’s merit depends on circumstance.
These ideas are useful to delineate between mere stereotypes and full-formed characters. While modern works often contain the presence of an interior monologue that shapes a character’s psychology, characters such as Jim in
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
, Maggie in Stephen Crane’s eponymous novel, the African Americans in Faulkner’s
The Sound and the Fury
, Tea Cake in
Their Eyes Were Watching God
, David’s father in
Call It Sleep
are shaped by their actions and reactions to the world around them. In this way, they are not “flat” characters, but simply ones shaped by a different culture. Also, in societies without writing, the narratives are internalized and improvisational. The plots are episodic, and episodes might contain elaborations or be forgotten in the retelling. Oral stories are somatic and participatory – the narrator’s presence draws the audience in.
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Consider how this might work in
Huck Finn
and
Their Eyes Were Watching God
, and in the individual narratives in
The Sound and the Fury.
Stories created in a world without writing also are visceral and close to the human bone, concerned with the physical realities of things. In such texts, violence and tenderness are raw, expressed in actions and imagery. Those raised in a non-literal world also needed to be consummately creative and virtuosic word spinners – especially when it came to verbal sparring: the technical word for this is “flyting”, although African Americans reference it as “playing the dozens”. Encomiums are also included in oral tradition, as are boasts, and these too carry expressions that are thick with references to life and action.
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The very act of telling a story orally also carries impressive stylistic beauty. Ong also points some of the psychodynamics of sound: It is an exterior and pluralistic sense, it unifies the community hearing the story. It is dynamic and shifting, and carries physical power. It is patterned, rhythmic, musical, additive and copious. It is also something sacred. He quotes a familiar passage from 2 Corinthians: “The letter kills, the spirit [breath] gives life.”
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For those familiar with epics, the invocation at the beginning is testimony to this understanding. Even something such as the untranslatable Anglo-Saxon word at the beginning of Beowulf “
Hwæt
”, is a call to attention for the listeners.
For students truly to understand the beauty and power of dialect, it is necessary to hear. You might turn down the lights and ask students to put their heads down, close their eyes and listen. Mark Twain, Zora Neale Hurston and William Faulkner are particularly expert at rendering dialect phonetically in text. Audio books are available online free for
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Their Eyes Were Watching God
and
The Sound and the Fury
. (Audible®, a subsidiary of Amazon is one provider.) Perhaps you are capable of affectively reading the passages yourself that are spoken in dialect, but with the help of technology, you don’t need to be. Have students listen carefully at first without writing.
Creating Criteria Rubrics for Student Analysis of Dialect in Literature
This is all heady stuff. First, ask what your
students
think about how dialect and non-standard language adds a sense of reality, of presence, of earthiness, of passion and truth in a character. These are all supremely valid things.
For each analysis, students should use a rubric that they have helped shape for literary analysis of dialect. The main question of analysis is how the character portrayals are different from negative stereotypes. Other criteria should include: How does dialect shape the character and provide historical or cultural context for the conflict in the story? Who is telling the story, how is it framed, and how much of the dialect is purposefully constructed, and why? How does the dialect creatively use figurative expressions (simile, metaphor) and symbolism that is shaped by cultural experiences and reflects important aspects of the conflict of the story? Are there slang expressions, expletives or racist statements? Are they appropriate in context or not? If there is another language, students should translate that passage and consider why this particular expression might be more authentic, or more poignant in the other language. And, students should strongly consider the
spoken
sound
aspects of dialogue as music: Consider the
sounds
of rhyming words, rhythm, cacophony, euphony and onomatopoeia. How do these add to the impact of the passage? This rubric might be used for any passage that contains dialect, from literary sources other than the ones listed below.
Mark Twain’s
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
continues to raise controversy in some places where Twain’s use of the n-word in the mouths of white people is causal and dehumanizing. The novel also received criticism for its use of dialect in portraying the slave, Jim, as it might seem to reinforce negative stereotypes of illiteracy and ignorance. If the novel is assigned for students to read, students could present assessments of the characters of both Huck and Jim and come to class prepared with excerpts that they have chosen that illustrate key character traits of both. However, the background of the story could be presented to the students along with excerpts that explore the use of dialect.
One particularly moving passage is in Chapter 15. When the novel begins, Huck introduces Jim as someone mysterious, an “other” who speaks differently and is part of a mystical world of witches and prophecy. Huck uses the word “nigger” indifferently, as one might reference a bird or snake. Huck does not yet realize that he and Jim are the same: Huck is struggling against white “sivilization” that is confining and filled with irrational rules; he struggles against a brutal, racist father whose possession of him and drunken violence mimic slavery. Huck plays childish games of empowerment with Tom Sawyer that disappoint him. He and Jim both seek freedom in the natural world, most importantly on the river – the place of transformation, of constant evolution, of apotheosis. When they meet, both are escaping the ruthless world that threatens their lives and they join up. Huck is initially bemused by Jim’s logic in countering the Wisdom of Solomon, since Solomon condones cutting a child in half. Huck sneers at Jim’s understanding that if a Frenchman is a man, surely he speaks English, the language of a man, and he dismisses Jim’s account of gambling where at first it seems Jim has lost all his money, but in the end Jim says, “I owns myself.” Indeed, freedom is something Huck cannot yet comprehend either for Jim or for himself. That Huck is in fact “free” at this point in the novel is something Jim shelters him from when he hides the dead body of Huck’s father. But what is freedom?
One moment of transition happens at the end of Chapter 15. Huck and Jim are separated in a foggy night. In a separate boat, Huck floats through towheads on the opposite side of a river island. Huck is frightened and lost. Exhausted, he falls asleep and only when the stars are out again can he find Jim, who is holding his head between his legs, asleep, the raft almost swamped with leaves and branches. When Jim wakes, he is expressive with gratitude: “En you ain’ dead – you ain’ drownded – you’s back agin? It’s too good for true, honey, it’s too good for true. Lemme look at you, chile, lemme feel o’ you. No, you ain’ dead! you’s back agin, live en soun’, jis de same ole Huck – de same ole Huck, thanks to goodness!”
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But Huck decides to trick Jim into thinking it was all a dream, insisting that he was there all along. Jim humors him, and retells his “dream” according to Huck, “with embellishments.” Jim interprets it as a warning: the towheads and their whoops calling to each other in the dark, and coming out of the fog represent their difficult passage into freedom. Huck then asks Jim to interpret the debris on the raft:
“What do dey stan’ for? I’s gwyne to tell you. When I got all wore out wid work, en wid de callin’ for you, en went to sleep, my heart wuz mos’ brok bekase you wuz los’, en I didn’ k’yer no mo’ what become er me en de raf’. En when I wake up en fine you back agin, all safe en soun’, de tears come en I could a got down on my knees en kiss’ yo’ foot I’s so thankful. En all you wuz thinkin ‘bout wuz how you could make a fool uv ole Jim wid a lie. Dat truck dah is
trash
; en trash is what people is dat puts dirt on de head er dey fren’s en makes ‘em ashamed.”
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Huck is stunned. He considers that it is he who should kiss Jim’s foot, and finds that it takes him fifteen minutes before he can work himself up to “go and humble” himself to “a nigger.” He tells us he is never sorry for doing so afterwards and vows he will never play mean tricks on Jim again. It is a stunning moment in the novel. What is freedom? What is wisdom? What is a person worth? What is love and humanity? Huck is awakened to find that white supremacy is a dream of white power, not proof of intelligence, but proof of inhumanity. If he wants freedom, he needs to first free himself from this dream.
After reading and annotating a passage, students can use their rubrics for analysis: Does dialect help to convey Jim’s character realistically? In particular, how does use of dialect add depth to the character’s background and place in history? In what ways does Twain’s rendering of dialect work to go deeper into the heart of the character of Jim? Do you think it is a demeaning portrayal? How does it differ from some of the propaganda images? Students should include particular references from listening to the spoken text for analysis: listen for musical elements of pitch and dynamics and resonating sounds, euphony and cacophony. Why is it so important that Jim’s language is not stripped of his history and culture, and rendered in Standard English? Why is it also important, in this case, for Huck to use a hateful epithet in referencing Jim?
Huck’s
English, it should also be noted, is also dialect. Why?
Use of dialect gives characters indelible power, tenderness, grace and poignancy. Contrary to negative racial stereotyping, use of authentic African American dialect in excellent fiction validates the clout and autonomy of black culture in America, and reinforces its influence on American culture as a whole.
Huck tells us his own story, in a straight-up first person narrative. In Faulkner’s
The Sound and the Fury
, individual members of the Compson family narrate the first three sections of the novel. The last section is told in first person limited perspective, from the point of view of Dilsey, one of the Compsons’ African American servants. Why make this shift? The first three sections are wrenchingly introspective: Benjy is mentally disabled, Quentin is suicidal, and Jason perhaps is a sociopath. Dilsey however, is centered and rational, the only one who is strong enough to have enduring love for children who are not her own. She is defined by her actions and the pure truth of her statements. Her kindness is blood and heart, and the dialect of her language, and the language of all the African Americans in the novel, whose roots were just pulled out of slavery, is sacred and hallowed in its oral rendering. She is of the moral fiber of this world, not an introspective unit isolated from it. Many writers have examined her dialect and the dialect of the sermon by a black preacher at the end of the novel, but there are other parts where dialect and character emerge as meaningful challenges as America transitioned in the early 20
th
century from one that was ruled only by Anglo-Saxon whites to one that needed to become more inclusive.
For this extraordinary novel, much has been written to analyze the political aspects of incorporation of dialect in the text and the portrayal of black characters, as the novel depicts a fallen and depraved Southern aristocracy. In the second section, the broken and aching thoughts of suicidal Quentin are momentarily quieted when he imagines the voices of old black men whose sound can carry like a hound dog’s, “further than a train, in the darkness.”
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Quentin is remembering a conversation with “Uncle” Louis, a black man who tells a story of how he saved himself and his wife from a flood by making sure the lantern he used for hunting was clean: “I cleant dat lantun and me and her sot de balance of de night on top of dat knoll back de graveyard. Enef I’d a knowed of aihy one higher, we’d a been on hit instead.” Louis’ voice as he called his dogs “sounded just like the horn he carried slung on his shoulder and never used, but clearer, mellower, as though his voice were a part of darkness and silence, coiling out of it, coiling into it again. WhoOooooo. WhoOoooo. WhoOooooooooooooooo.”
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Here, the
sound
of Louis’ voice is like a foghorn, temporarily soothing Quentin who will die by drowning himself in the Charles River as he futilely attempts to restore the family by matriculating at Harvard. The sense of Louis’ story of saving himself from a flood through his connection to the earth, can also be interpreted politically, as Quentin has lost his rooted identity: In Boston, he is mistaken for someone who speaks like a minstrel performer. While Quentin has lost his place and his voice, the survivors in this novel are the members of Dilsey’s family. The
voice
of America has shifted.
After reading and annotating this or other passages, students can use their rubrics for analysis of dialect, and where language becomes an important symbol of power, control, and expression of emotion.
Among African American writers of the early 20
th
century, use of dialect was more controversial as the fight for recognition and equality moved many to avoid what was often used as means of negative stereotyping. Writers of the tine were reluctant to promote an image of African Americans as uneducated and simple. But Zora Neale Hurston was an anthropologist and folklorist educated at Columbia University who recorded folktales in the Caribbean and Florida. She insisted on the authenticity of using dialect in rendering characters whose culture and history were evident in language. In her essay, “Characteristics of Negro Expression,” Hurston theorized about dialect reinforcing actions, and qualified “actions” to include performance: “Every phase of Negro Life is highly dramatized….everything is acted out.”
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It is easy to see how this insight might help readers understand use of dialect in her novel,
Their Eyes Were Watching God
. The novel is told in a frame within a frame, as the very conventionally eloquent third person narrator passes the story on to Janie, who uses dialect to tell her story to her friend Phoeby. She tells Phoeby, “You can tell ‘em what Ah say if you wants to. Dat’s just de same as me ‘cause mah tongue is in mah friend’s mouf.”
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And effectively, in
our
mouths as well!
The novel transitions back and forth, code-switching between languages: Janie herself is biracial, and her journey takes her from powerlessness to empowerment, although her power does not evolve at all from white society. Hurston’s narrator shares the telling of her story throughout the novel, but the more eloquent expressions, the more analytical passages are still shaped by cultural rhythms, words, and metaphors. One evident place in the novel is when the hurricane is approaching in Chapter 18. As the passage begins, “Sometime that night the winds came back. Everything in the world had a strong rattle, sharp and short like Stew Beef vibrating the drum head near the edge with his fingers.… Louder and higher and lower and wider the sound and motion spread, mounting, sinking, darking.” The passage continues to the title line, “They seemed to be staring at the dark, but their eyes were watching God.”
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This prose passage is filled with tropes of oral poetry that include metric patterns, physical imagery, personification of the storm, the lake and night, thunder and clouds. As the storyteller sings this in the background, Tea Cake and Janie tenderly express their love for each other in the earthly and simple language of dialect. Janie says, “We been tuhgether round two years. If you kin see de light at daybreak, you don’t keer if you die at dusk. It’s so many people never seen de light at all. Ah wuz fumblin’ round and God opened de door.”
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It is a stunningly affective transition. In terms of Hurston’s observations of “acting” or performance, we find that overall when the characters speak, their language is deliberate, crafted and clever. Brilliant figurative expressions, patterns and rhythmic phrases abound. Have students use their rubrics to examine this passage, or another in Chapter 20 as Janie, the skilled griot, resolves her story:
“Now, Phoeby, don’t feel too mean wid de rest of ‘em ‘cause dey’s parched up from not knowin’ things. Dem meatskins is
got
tuh rattle tuh make out they’s alive. Let ‘em consulate theyselves wid talk. ‘Course, talkin’ don’t amount tuh uh hill uh beans when yuh can’t do nothin’ else. And listenin’ tuh dat kind uh talk is jus’ lak openin’ yo’ mouth and lettin’ de moon shine down yo’ throat.”
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For writers, a character’s voice must be authentic. It isn’t what is said, but how. Often what is
not
said or cannot be said goes farther in revealing a character’s heart. In this way, dialogue illuminates character beyond what a character might be able to say eloquently, but says culturally, adding ineffable dimension.
Although not dialect, incorporating other languages into works written mainly in English is becoming more common. As America becomes more bilingual, Spanish is appearing more frequently in English language texts. If you have Spanish-speaking students in your class, these texts are perhaps easier to teach. But why not encourage all students to translate the passages, or to infer what is said from context? Let’s celebrate and embrace bilingualism! A really interesting example of a novel that flows seamlessly from English to Spanish is Cormac McCarthy’s
The Crossing
, the second novel in his Border Trilogy. When Boyd crosses into Mexico, people simply speak Spanish. No italics, no awkward rendering in broken English. It is an amazing read.
A selection from Chapter 1 of
Under the Feet of Jesus
, by Helena Maria Viramontes deals with linguistic discrimination, and in this context, students should examine how incorporating Spanish is meaningful thematically.
The section begins shortly after Estrella’s father leaves and she is struggling to accept Perfecto Flores as the new man in her mother’s life.
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The paragraph starts with Estrella’s question: “So what is this?” and continues to describe her anger at discovering Perfecto’s tool box by the door. They remind her of the alphabet that she doesn’t understand in the class where migrant students have to sit in the back of the room. She is enraged that the teacher thinks she is dirty and has no time for her questions. But Perfecto teaches her the names of the tools and how to use them: “aqui, pergarle, aqui” he says. The section ends with, “That was when she began to read.” Why are the words in Spanish so significant? (Not to mention the man’s name.) Later in the section, Estrella’s mother, Petra, is whispering a song: “Te vengo a decir adiós, No quiero verte llorando.”
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The song is in the background of a scene where Petra is mourning the loss of innocence of her daughter. At the end of this passage she says twice to Estrella, “Diós lo permita, Pa’ estrecharte entre mis brazos.”
Students should use their rubrics for analysis, and explain why the author would choose to use Spanish. How does it add to the tenderness and meaning of the scene? Another good story to examine would be
No Speak English
from Sandra Cisneros’
The House on Mango Street
, and many of the other stories in this collection as well.
Other recommendations for examining how dialect and non-standard English add to the power and meaning of works include Stephen Crane’s
Maggie: A Girl of the Streets,
which utilizes mostly Irish-immigrant dialect in lower Manhattan at the turn of the century. Another novel is Henry Roth’s magnificent
Call it Sleep
, which depicts Jewish immigrants who speak Yiddish in New York slums during the Depression. Roth incorporates code-switching to illustrate cultural bias: He expresses a character’s broken and struggling English in dialect, and extraordinary eloquence and intelligence, written in English, when the characters switch to Yiddish. The readers experience
English
as the foreign language! Also consider: Esmeralda Santiago’s
When I Was Puerto Rican
, Junot Diaz’
The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao,
and
Christ in Concrete
, which incorporates Italian and dialect, by Pietro di Donato. Also, short stories of Hurston, Frank Chin, Maxine Hong Kingston, Amy Tan, Isaac Bashevis Singer, Toni Cade Bambera, Alice Walter, Milton Murayama and N. Scott Momaday, who incorporates Kiowa into some of his stories. Selections should also include a variety of poems for students to analyze: Langston Hughes, Paul Laurence Dunbar, Nikki Giovanni, Gwendolyn Brooks, Maya Angelou, Angela De Hoyos, Gwendolyn Bennett, Sterling Brown, Claude McCay, Jean Toomer, even Robert Burns – are all good sources.
4) Use of Dialect in Song
Students will find their own depictions of artistic use of language variances in song and spoken word. They will present the work to the class with an analysis of its artistic strengths or weaknesses. Other students in the class will use their rubrics to provide commentary.
An introduction to this section might include a historical dimension, with listening to excerpts from
Porgy and Bess
and songs from Gospel and blues artists. The list here could be endless, but some of my choices would include Robert Johnson, Memphis Minnie, Mahalia Jackson, Muddy Waters, B.B. King, Marion Anderson, Billy Holiday, Etta James and Nina Simone. Students could discuss how dialect is used effectively. A short lesson on the development of lyrics as code words during slave times might also be included.
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5-6) Finding Strength and Power in Language Variance: Final Synthesis Paper and Student Videos to Counter Racism
The synthesis paper will ask student to take a stand on use of language as an artistic means of expressing culture. The paper should incorporate many of the unit discussions, and the critical assessment of exploitation of cultural expressions in images and film. It should also cite poetry, song and literary excerpts that depict use of dialect and language variations that they will analyze as purposeful and expressive. Should there be limits on expression? When does artistic expression become a negative stereotype? Where is the line between art and exploitation? Does such artistic stereotyping harm individuals? Why does the use of non-standard English convey something that Standard English cannot?
And finally, students will create videos of their own works – either song or spoken word – to express their own sense of pride and identity. The goal of these presentations is to counter racism, build pride and present a celebration of language variations that express students’ individual culture in a positive and powerful light. Students will provide feedback on how this particular unit has affected their understanding of use of language, dialect, and code-switching in literature and in their own lives.
