Gayl Jones, "Breaking Out of the Conventions of Dialect" (1991)
Discussion Questions:
153:
- What "dual problem" in African American literary history
does Jones identify?
154:
- How,
according to Jones,
did the minstrel
tradition create
ambivalence in early
African American
writers toward the use
of dialect?
- What
is the purpose of
Jones's quotation from
Johnson's introduction
to The Book of
American Negro
Poetry?
155:
- Explain
the significance of
this part of the quote
about Burns: "the spontaneous
overflow of native
feelings,"
especially in relation
to the "accusation of
artlessness" (155).
156:
- Explain
Jones's framing
questions.
- What,
according to Jones, is
the significance of
Dunbar's use of point
of view and audience
in "The Lynching of
Jube Benson"?
157:
- What,
according to Jones, is
the significance of
Dunbar's use of the
frame story format?
- How,
according to Jones, is
irony employed in the
story?
158:
- In
what way,
according to Jones, does
"Dunbar's use of
dialect in the story
[clinch] the problems
in the
turn-of-the-century
use of the conventions
of literary dialect"
(158)?
159:
- Explain:
"language is
inseparable from our
comprehension and
sense of character"
(159).
160:
- Explain:
"the significant
relationships were
always interracial
ones of unambiguous
conflict and dangerous
confrontation" (160).
- What,
according to Jones,
are the consequences
of the fact that the
themes of Hurston's
"The Gilded Six-Bits"
is "not part of the protest
literature tradition"
(160)?
- Does
Jones agree with
George Kent that this
is a "simple story"?
Explain (see also
163).
- In
what way,
according to Jones, is
the audience of "The
Gilded Six-Bits" different
from that of "The
Lynching of Lube
Benson"?
162:
- According
to Jones, what
reversal occurs after
Joe and Missie May
visit the ice-cream
parlor?
163:
- Describe
the "problem of the
'stuff of important
fiction'" (163).
164:
- Explain
the discussion of
subtle possibilities.
165:
- Explain
the distinction Jones
makes between
Hurston's metaphors
and those of the White
characters and authors
discussed earlier.
166:
- What
significance does
Jones identify in
Hurston's use of
flashback in the story?
- How,
according to Jones, is
Hurston's use of
dialect innovative?