An Exploration of Black English Vernacular Use through Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin and William Wells Brown’s Clotel. A Sociolinguistic Approach

Abstract

This present research work examines the exploration of Black English Vernacular use through Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin and William Wells Brown’s Clotel. It demonstrates a hybrid discipline of sociolinguistics and Literature. Besides, this thesis explores both novels from a cultural perspective, shedding light on the dialectal elements of Black English. Methodologically, an interdisciplinary approach has been employed in gathering and analyzing data, that is the use of literary, linguistic and sociolinguistic approaches to a better understanding of the various features of speech. Concerning the result, dialect use in literary work seems to have a good contribution to diversity and characterization, more popular to readers as if to let a simple lay man reader more comfortable and familiar.