方言と差別語 : Huckleberry Finnにおける言葉の二面性

Abstract

Early crkical responses to Adventures of Huckleberry Finn are widely diverse from high praise to harsh condemnation． The most serious impact on the work is made by the Concord Library banning， which withdraws the book from the institution on the ground that it is vulgar and immoral． This banning， together with other scandals such as the obscene engraving and the Estes ＆ Lauriat lawsuit， imposes a negative image on the book， even though they increase its sale by drawing much attention． At first it is mainly the vernacular languages in Huck that incur condemnation from genteel society． But in the course of the next half century when the book begins to be regarded as a national classic， the dialects are celebrated as a way of expressing unique American culture． The present debates over racism in Huck is as heated as those over vulgarism at the time of its publication． The dialects， first condemned as vulgar， are now accused that they contain racial slurs． lt is pointed out that those dialects which are used to depict black characters exaggerate the ignorance of black people and make up a derisive racial stereotype． The more black people panicipate in reading the book the more visible is prejudice so far overloocked in the dialects． The vemacular speech is said to be the integral part of Huck as a classic， but it can also be a disintegrative factor in the book．