Travelling Dialect

Abstract

Dialect is a paradox. Bounded by its geographic and cultural specificity, it is, by definition, insular and local, the product of limited interactions; its literary concerns fleeting and dated, not universal, cosmopolitan, or of lasting value. And yet dialect narratives and musical traditions have been global fixtures for hundreds of years. This chapter explores the theme of travelling dialect in Creole literature. It describes how, in the post-Emancipation period, African-American dialect via sketches and “plantation songs” became a model for the literary rendering of Caribbean dialect. It examines Caribbean attitudes towards African Americans in the nineteenth century, the popularity of blackface minstrelsy in the Caribbean and touring choirs such as the Fisk Jubilee Choir and the Native Choir of Jamaica as major influences on the development of the Caribbean Creole literary tradition.