1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910459853903321

Autore

Nettels Elsa

Titolo

Language, race, and social class in Howells's America / / Elsa Nettels

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Lexington, Kentucky : , : The University Press of Kentucky, , 1988

©1988

ISBN

0-8131-3021-2

0-8131-6131-2

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (249 p.)

Disciplina

818/.409

Soggetti

National characteristics, American, in literature

Speech and social status - United States

Language and languages in literature

English language - United States

Social classes in literature

Americanisms in literature

Race in literature

Electronic books.

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Includes index.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Cover; Title; Copyright; Contents; Preface; Introduction; One. Language in Howells's America; Two. ""Good Natural English""; Three. American and British English; Four. Realism and Dialect; Five. The Problem of ""Negro Dialect"" in Literature; Six. Language, Race, and Nationality in Howells's Fiction; Seven. Language and Class in the Early Novels; Eight. Language and Class in Novels of Country and City; Nine. Language and Complicity in The Minister's Charge; Ten. Language and Equality in the Late Novels; Conclusion; Notes; Works of William Dean Howells; Index; A; B; C; D; E; F; G; H; I; J; K

LM; N; O; P; R; S; T; U; V; W; Z

Sommario/riassunto

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.In this first full-scale treatment of Howells as a writer about language, Elsa Nettels offers a historic