Dialect's Different Uses

Last semester, I took COMM 205, a course in Women, Minorities, and the Media. We watched a documentary HBO had aired entitled, "Unchained Memories: Readings from the Slave Narratives." Even though we looked at the movie from strictly a minority standard, I chose to bring it up because I noticed such a stark contrast from the way that the actors were instructed to read/portray the characters and the way that Frederick Douglass had written his narrative. Here is a link to a YouTube clip of the documentary.

Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0pAhzsWFyM&feature=related

As we discussed last class and Meg mentioned below, Douglass had obtained significant instruction from saying his ABCs to being able to coherently express himself in standard English in his narrative. It is safe to say that after watching "Unchained Memories," that most of the former slaves interviewed spoke in some form of southern dialect, and HBO tried to recreate by instructing the actors to speak in that distinct dialect. If you skip to about 0:55 seconds on the YouTube link, you're able to see the interview the reporter conducted with Sarah Gudger in text format, exhibiting misspellings and expressions of words that look preposterous but serve to help the reader gain an understanding of how exactly Sarah spoke.

Presumably, this reporter knew that the record she was creating was filled with grammatical errors that would make any English teacher grimace. In fact, the text interview looks stunningly similar to the examples of student writing in "Why Johnny Can't Write." The difference is that Sarah's interview was purposely written incorrectly to capture dialogue in a historical context. While it appears Sarah herself was probably unable to read or write based on the interview, the way the dialogue is structured in the text raises an interesting issue as to the impact of dialect on the narrative.

Even though Douglass is able to express himself in an elevated level of standard English in his narrative, and Sarah Gudger, an illiterate slave, orally recalls her experiences for another to transcribe, the dialect element in Sarah's account appeals more to the emotion of the readers. In reading Douglass' narrative in comparison, the writing itself seems to lend itself more to showcasing his literary accomplishments vs. relaying the actual events of his life.

It is interesting, therefore, to consider how the use of dialect in writing can change the intended meaning of the story. Even though dialect itself has seemingly caused issues between written and spoken language, it definitely has some substance in this type of expression.