Language, Race, and Social Class in Howells's America

by Elsa Nettels

Overview

No other American novelist has written so fully about language---grammar, diction, the place of colloquialism and dialect in literary English, the relation between speech and writing---as William Dean Howells. The power of language to create social, political, and racial identity was of central concern to Americans in the nineteenth century, and the implications of language in this regard are strikingly revealed in the writings of Howells, the most influential critic and editor of his age.

The first book to analyze in depth and detail the language of Howell's characters in more than a dozen novels, this path-breaking sociolinguistic approach to Howell's fiction exposes the fundamental contradiction in his realism and in the America he portrayed. By representing the speech that separates standard from non-standard speakers, Howells' novels---which champion the democratic ideals of equality and unity---also demonstrate the power of language to reinforce barriers of race and class in American society.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780813185521
Publisher:	University Press of Kentucky
Publication date:	10/21/2021
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	328
File size:	346 KB
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Elsa Nettels, professor of English at the College of William and Mary, is the author of James and Conrad.

Editorial Reviews

An excellent summary of dominant attitudes toward language and usage, and therefore toward class, race, nationalism, and imperialism, in leading white middle-class American publications in the second half of the nineteenth century.

American Literature

"An excellent summary of dominant attitudes toward language and usage, and therefore toward class, race, nationalism, and imperialism, in leading white middle-class American publications in the second half of the nineteenth century." — American Literature

From the Publisher