Date: Sun, 5 Oct 1997 11:42:14 -0500

From: Larry Rosenwald LROSENWALD[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]WELLESLEY.EDU

Subject: dialect in literature



Hi -

I have a question, or a couple of questions, I'd like to ask

readers of this list. I'm writing a study of the representation of English

-language dialects in American literature towards the end of the 19th

century. What I'd like to know is, 1) are there works of American

literature whose representation you particularly admire or disdain? 2)

are there good contemporary scholarly essays on the representation of

dialect? 3) are there interesting 19th-century views on the representation

of dialect?

I'm not at the beginning of this study, but I'm not at the end of

it either. I know Sumner Ives' "A Theory of Literary Dialect," and the

remarks about the representation of dialect in Raymond Williams' _The

Country and the City_, and the remarks made by writers like Henry James

and William Dean Howells. I'd be grateful for any pointers, citations, or

opinions.

Best, Larry Rosenwald, Wellesley College