Relación profesor estudiante

CONTENTS 5.1 Introduction 5.2 Objectives 5.3 Main Contents

5.3.1 The African American English, History and Literature 5.4 Conclusion

5.5 Summary

5.6 Tutor-Marked Assignment 5.7 References/Further Reading

5.1 INTRODUCTION

Writing is, in essence, a process that involves negotiating culture in one way or another. The written text is a result of the interplay of culture, and the African American writer gives it form.

To understand this interplay fully, it is necessary to define, as precisely as possible, the two conceptual pillars upon which this interplay rests: culture and African American literature. At its face value, culture is one of those terms in our daily lexicon for which there seems to be consensus of use. Looking at the word closely, one would simply say that it carries different meanings for different people. Definitions are almost inexhaustible in literature. In a more anthropological sense, Thomas Barfield in The Dictionary of Anthropology (2000) considers culture as ―a non-biological concept transmitted by society. It includes all aspects of human enterprise such as the artistic, social, ideological, and religious patterns of behaviour, and the techniques for mastering the environment‖. But it is defined in a numeric sense as ―a social grouping that is smaller than a civilization but larger than an industry‖ (Winnick, 1956: 144).

And when we say ‗social grouping‘, we are invariably referring to an organization based on

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relatedness or a shared common ancestry or a community of people sharing artifacts and living together at a given period and place such that the African American society is made off.

Culture may not be organic, but wherever there is human life, there is culture. Hence, if culture is non-genetic, it becomes a product of social interaction, and since culture is entirely the result of societal invention, and is transmitted by precept from one generation to the next, it may also be thought of in terms of heritage hence we talk about African American which happens to be a fusion of two different sensibilities; as DuBois calls it, it is a ‗double consciousness‘ or ‗two souls in one body‘, but these two selves are reconcilable. For this reason, the African American culture transcends the mere collection of isolated bits of individual behaviour.

5.2 OBJECTIVES

The students should be able to:

a. make inferences based on evidence so that their understanding of history is more complete and accurate;

b. show that there are many gaps in history, especially the history of blacks in America;

c. point to primary sources and demonstrate understanding of the context of history; and d. get a more accurate picture of what was going on at that moment up to this time.

5.3 MAIN CONTENTS

5.3.1 The African American English, History and Literature

One of the flash points of African American culture is its English which is also known as Ebonics. It is a variety of American English; its pronunciation is said to be very much like the southern American English which is spoken by many African Americans today. It shares many

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characteristics with Creole. This English is said to have the same grammatical structure with West African languages; so it may not be out of place to say that the English is African-based language with English words. Speakers of this language are typically bi-dialectal; hence, status, topic and setting all influence its usage just like other linguistic forms. This usage is common in African American literature for as mentioned before, the need to communicate with one another and the slave masters prompted this peculiar dialect.

By 1895, African American dialect had come to connote black innate difference, a kind of mental inferiority. It was seen as the linguistic sign of both human bondage and lack of progress.

To some at this time, African American dialect signified difference as well as showing that they are objects and not subjects in society. For the writer, to draw on this same speech as a medium of expression, especially to present the mode of realism, suggests certain boldness and care showing the ability to marry both the Standard English with the peculiar black speech.

When African Americans were pressed for a mode of representation when they were looking for the theory of mimesis, Hurston steps in and sweeps into narrative strategies which can only be rivaled by Ralph Ellison‘s Invisible Man. Hurston points out to the world that African American dialect is not a speech of backwardness. Rather, she demonstrates that this speech keeps alive the oral form of African American experience.

In the plantation, proficiency in the English language was seen by blacks as a step towards freedom. It meant a sure way out of bondage, but Hurston in Their Eyes Were Watching God demonstrates that African Americans need to have their own unique dialect that only few whites can understand; they need a dialect that can be an effective element of resistance.

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Because there is the need for a distinctive voice, African Americans then as they still do kept their variant of English even though it was termed ‗rural‘ and ‗poor‘ variant. Hurston in this case makes her character act out of communicative competence; hence when Janie is explaining something, she acts it out, and she demonstrates it for effective comprehension. Through this performance as one can observe, the oral form is retained and kept permanently secured. Perhaps this is the reason why Gates Jr. (1988:176-81) calls Hurston‘s novel ‗a speakerly text‘. What is glaring is that when you are reading the novel, you cannot help but over hear the conversation going on in the text. For example, Janie‘s conversation with Pheoby is as real as can be, especially when Pheoby says: ―Ah done growed ten feet higher from jus‘ listenin‘ tuh you, Janie Ah ain‘t satisfied wid mahself no mo‖ (183). Hurston‘s use of the black dialect is so smooth that it gives no room for confusion because she knows where to stop writing in dialect. All of the narration and descriptions in the book are in plain English, what one may call Standard English;

she does not confuse the reader by putting narration in dialect, only the characters‘ dialogue is in dialect.

Alice Walker says that Hurston‘s novel provides the African American literary community with its prime symbol of racial health, a sense of black people who remain complete, complex, undiminished, even in the face of discrimination.

Thus, the search for the telling form of language makes the African American employ African American dialect, and this in turn is equated with the search for the true self because using this dialect gets him/her closer to his/her real self. Janie in Their Eyes Were Watching God says Ah done been tuh de horizon and back and now A‘ kin set in mah house and live by comparisms (p.

1 and 87). Janie tells her friend Phoeby her life history and says she has seen it all – the good, the

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bad and the terrible. Hence, all she does now is to compare. Through the dialect, the African American explores deeply the nature of his/her people as well as his/her own nature.

Exploring the folk life is another way through which the African American can connect to his/her root and like an un-colonised African, he/she derives so much pride and joy in anything black to the extent that the obsession even elicited suspicion from other black people and made them so uncomfortable when such a writer as Zora Neale Hurston was around them. Hurston‘s novel mainly moves the image of the black man beyond stereotypes as she seeks the ever-evolving ways of the folk.

Hurston's novel as a manifestation of what the folk stands for in African American culture is lively, lyrical, funny and poignant; as a first-rate ethnographer, conducting fieldwork for Franz Boas, the father of American anthropology, Hurston was able to delve into the cultural root of her people. Thus, it is not surprising, that Hurston's fictional output is laced with the sounds, songs, and stories of the Southern black folk tradition. The novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, often acclaimed as Hurston's masterpiece, is perhaps the richest beneficiary of her work as a folklorist.

Most African American writers following this trend grasp a theme of black folklore, delving into the true nature of man, the true nature of women and showing in a very moving tone how these two natures blend and, in the same vein, explain that the love for blackness is more or less a vivid manifesto of selfhood. They show this love as an affirmation of what is good and positive, what is authentic and potent. In their writings too, they break down stereotypes and paint a canvas of multi-colour that reflects this love for their people. The African American writer succeeds in capturing the tones and gestures of the people they write about. Hence, in Hurston‘s