American Literature / Unit 11 AML 1008 short lesson, about 20 seconds
The Vernacular as a Literary Instrument
Captions available
The idea
Twain wrote American speech as people spoke it, with regional pronunciation, grammar and idiom, and made that speech carry a whole novel rather than decorate a comic scene. The decision changed what American prose could sound like, and later writers dated their freedom from it.
In practice
Ordinary speech, carrying a whole book.
Where people slip
Dialect on the page is composed, not transcribed.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
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