African American Vernacular English - in Literature and Media

In Literature and Media

There has been a long-standing tradition of representing the speech of blacks in American literature. A number of researchers have looked into the ways that American authors have depicted the speech of black characters, investigating the ways that black identity is established and how it connects to other characters. Brasch (1981:x) argues that early mass media portrayals of black speech are the strongest historical evidence that a separate variety of English existed for blacks. Early popular works are also used to determine the similarities that historical varieties of black speech have in common with modern AAVE.

The earliest depictions of black speech came from works written in the eighteenth century, primarily from white authors. A notable exception includes Clotel, the first novel written by an African American (William Wells Brown). Depictions have largely been restricted to dialogue and the first novel written entirely in AAVE was June Jordan's His Own Where (1971), though Alice Walker's epistolary novel The Color Purple is a much more widely known work written entirely in AAVE. Lorraine Hansberry's 1959 play A Raisin in the Sun also depicts near exclusive use of AAVE.

Some other notable works that have incorporated representations of black speech (with varying degrees of perceived authenticity) include the following:

• Edgar Allan Poe: "The Gold-Bug" (1843)
• Herman Melville: Moby-Dick (1851)
• Harriet Beecher Stowe: Uncle Tom's Cabin (1851–1852)
• Joel Chandler Harris: Uncle Remus (1880)
• Mark Twain: Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885)
• Thomas Nelson Page: In Ole Virginia (1887)
• Thomas Dixon: The Clansman (1905)
• Margaret Mitchell: Gone with the Wind (1936)
• Zora Neale Hurston: Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937)
• William Faulkner: Go Down, Moses (1942)
• John Kennedy Toole: A Confederacy of Dunces (1980)

As there is no established spelling system for AAVE, depicting it in literature is instead often done through spelling changes to indicate its phonological features, or to contribute to the impression that AAVE is being used (eye dialect). More recently, authors have begun focusing on grammatical cues, and even the use of certain rhetorical strategies.

Portrayals of black characters in movies and television are also done with varying degrees of authenticity. In Imitation of Life (1934), the speech and behavioral patterns of Delilah (an African American character) are reminiscent of minstrel performances that set out to exaggerate stereotypes, rather than depict black speech authentically. More authentic performances, such as those in the following movies and TV shows, occur when certain speech events, specialized vocabulary, and certain syntactic features are used to indicate AAVE usage, often with particular emphasis on young, urban African Americans:

• Do the Right Thing (1989)
• Jungle Fever (1991)
• The Best Man (1999)
• Laurel Avenue (1993)
• Fresh (1994)
• The Fresh Prince of Bel Air (1990–1996)