The creative potential of dialect writing in later-nineteenth-century America

When Walt Whitman in An American Primer called his native language "a tongu e that spurns all laws," he furnished a description that can serve as a per fect characterization for the mode of literary expression during the period spanning the final decades of the nineteenth and the beginning decades of the twentieth centuries. It was a phase in American literary history that w as particularly rich in texts that, in order to achieve their literary effe cts, availed themselves of the expressive potential inherent in unconventio nal language use. Produced by writers such as Finley Peter Dunne, Charles G odfrey Leland, Thomas A. Daly, Paul Laurence Dunbar, Alexander Posey and ot hers-names rarely listed in standard literary histories-these texts derived their linguistic appeal from the way they used language but also from the perspective their linguistic strategy created. While dialect texts enjoyed a tremendous popularity, the critical reception by literary scholars has mo stly been one of indifference or even scorn. Encouraged by the more favoura ble evaluations of dialect writing that have appeared in recent times, in t his essay I argue for a reappraisal of these neglected forms of literary ac tivity in the United States. Their linguistic virtuosity, their potential v alue as documents of folklore and linguistic diversity, and their significa nce in the development toward alternative forms of literary expression make them an unusual treasure in America's literary heritage.