Abstract
Interested primarily in the question of ‘how dialect is used in fictional narratives’ (p. 15), Jane Hodson turns not only to literature but also to film (and, occasionally, to television) to explore this question. Her first two chapters lay the necessary groundwork. In chapter one she defines dialect and makes the case for why it should be studied in both film and literature, and for why these two forms should be considered together. In chapter two, she looks at the often complex relationship between non-standard dialects and Standard English. In the next four chapters, she considers issues of analysis, concentrating on film in chapter three, literature in chapter five, and how the thorny issue of stereotype interacts with dialect and its investigation in each form (chapters four and six). Chapter seven unites the two discussions by considering two film adaptations in relation to their source novels, and the final chapters investigate dialect representations in literature and film in relation to four broader issues: metalanguage (chapter eight), style-shifting (chapter nine), realism (chapter 10), and authenticity (chapter 11).
While readers with a background in film and media studies may wish for greater engagement with work in these fields and analysts of science fiction and fantasy may find the proposed relationship between dialect and realism somewhat overstated, these two minor quibbles do not detract from the value of Hodson’s contribution. In this well researched and thoughtful book, Hodson keeps her promises. She does indeed open up our understanding of the many ways dialect can function as a significant stylistic device in film and literature, and she does much to foster future research in this area. Three stand-out features demonstrate these points: the book’s usefulness to multiple audiences, its consideration of literary and popular views of dialect in addition to linguistic perspectives, and its range.
Dialect in Film and Literature is one of those rare academics books that will serve students, teachers, and scholars equally well. Students will benefit from explanations and discussions of relevant features (e.g. h-dropping; subjunctive forms) and issues (e.g. covert prestige; text internal and text external factors in analysis) that are clear and well instanced but not oversimplified. They will also find value in the historical overviews provided, which put both linguistic and literary developments in a wider context, and in the suggestions for further study, which are both thought provoking and engaging. Those teaching or planning to teach the subject will appreciate the in-depth and up-to-date reviews of the research literature, and will gain much from the careful attention to detail underpinning each analysis. Scholars interested in dialect will welcome Hodson’s insightful and innovative textual investigations. Chapter eight, for example, offers much food for thought on the way paratextual features (prefaces, glossaries, author’s notes, and so on) intersect with the perception and interpretation of dialect representation, and puts forward a useful framework for the analysis of metalanguage in film and literature. In a series of analyses covering a number of diverse texts (such as Zoe Heller’s Notes on a Scandal, Nick Hornby’s High Fidelity, and Thomas Hardy’s ‘The Son’s Veto’), Hodson looks at where metalanguage tends to occur and demonstrates two of its significant functions: its use in narration as a way to channel readers towards certain interpretations of dialect and away from others, and its role between characters as a way of ‘policing the boundaries of class and identity’ (p. 166). In chapter nine she points out that the line between deliberately depicted style-shifting and unintentionally ‘inconsistent representation’ (p. 173) may be hard to draw, which has clear implications for analysis and interpretation. Later in the same chapter, Hodson looks at emotional and interpersonal style-shifting and, with reference to Le Page and Tabouret-Keller’s (1985) Acts of Identity, introduces a third category for the analysis of represented style-shifting, transformative style-shifting, which she defines as ‘a situation where someone, by shifting to a new language variety, brings about a change in their circumstance’ (p. 179).
Also of note in Dialect in Film and Literature is its engagement with popular and literary stances on dialect in relation to linguistic views. As Hodson notes, linguists working on variation tend to view all dialects, standard and non-standard alike, as equally legitimate. Many readers, however, may not share this view, and this raises a number of complex issues with respect to interpretation, issues that Hodson confronts head on. She points out, for example, that regardless of what an author may seek to achieve with dialect representation, and regardless of what a linguistic analysis might reveal about that representation, readers may, given the influence of Standard English, perceive the dialect representation negatively (p. 115) or as an instance of stereotype (p. 125). Another complicating factor, as Hodson notes, is the difference between linguistic analyses on one hand, and literary/critical analyses on the other. In an investigation of the character Jar Jar Binks from the film Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, Hodson points out that linguistically, ‘there is insufficient evidence to conclude that Jar Jar’s speech is an attempt to represent the English of any particular social or ethnic group’ (p. 77) and yet, (at least one) film critic did just that, pegging the representation as West Indian and making judgements of the film on that basis. While debates between linguists and literary critics are far from settled and more research on how readers and viewers actually do respond to dialect representation is certainly needed, Hodson’s discussion of these matters in Dialect in Film and Literature will stand as a firm foundation for future work.
A further strength of Dialect in Film and Literature is its range. Unlike many other investigators of represented dialect, Hodson does not confine herself to a particular period or genre. Instead, she ranges quite widely, from Charles Dickens, Thomas Hardy, and Joseph Conrad to JD Salinger and Harper Lee to Ian Rankin and James Kelman. Howards End is discussed with Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (along with the filmed version of each novel); JK Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is put next to a Thomas Hardy short story and a Tony Harrison poem; Star Wars: The Phantom Menace shares a chapter with Four Weddings and a Funeral; and works such as George Eliot’s Adam Bede and Angela Carter’s Nights at the Circus are discussed with equal seriousness. The suggested exercises are equally wide ranging. Readers choosing to engage with these will find themselves looking at a plurality of texts, from classics such as Hardy’s Tess of the D’Urbervilles to Disney’s Dumbo. In proceeding this way, Hodson demonstrates that dialect as a stylistic device is not only an issue in the working class novel or the regional novel, but potentially significant in any kind of fictional narrative. Noteworthy as well is the inclusion of texts such as Ken Saro-Wiwa’s Sozaboy. Typically, such works are defined and discussed as postcolonial texts or examples of world literature in English. While Hodson does not ignore this, neither does she corral these works for patronage on this basis, or discuss them primarily for their engagement with ‘otherness’; rather, her focus in these texts is the same as it is for Oliver Twist, To Kill a Mockingbird, Trainspotting and all the other texts she studies: the significance of represented linguistic variation and how we can investigate it. The implication here is, refreshingly, that native speaker dialects and second language varieties exist, so far as representation is concerned, on a continuum rather than in a hierarchy.
As Hodson notes, dialect representations are important not only as stylistic devices within texts. Crucially, they also ‘interact with the society within which they appear’ (p. 10). Just what this society may be, of course, has never been a simple issue. Growing up in America, I watched Are You Being Served along with East Enders and Taggart. In which ‘society’ can such texts be said to ‘appear’? What was a vexing enough question in the 1980s and 1990s is set to become even more complicated. As I wrote this review, the BBC World Service announced that the streaming service Netflix was being made available in India, and that a Chinese corporation had acquired a major Hollywood film studio. Hodson’s Dialect in Film and Literature will provide a firm foundation for the study of dialect representation as we move further forward into the linguistic complexities of the 21st century.