Dialect literature
Dialect literature or vernacular literature is a form of literature that is characterized by the fact that it uses the specific dialect , i.e. the vernacular, of a certain region. This includes both artistically motivated works by individual authors, which include longer prose (up to the novel ) and poetry (dialect poetry) , as well as folk theater , Schwänke , traditionally handed down texts such as fairy tales and customs handed down in the form of texts. The dialect literature in the broadest sense also includes proverbs , sentences , tongue twisters , riddles , counting rhymes and so on. Dialect literature can be local poetry or literature, but does not have to be.
Exemplary dialect literatures of the German-speaking area
The writer Andreas Gryphius with his Silesian “Die verliebte Dornrose” (1660) as a dialect literary should be mentioned as an example of the 17th century .
The collection of children's and house fairy tales by the Brothers Grimm , which appeared in many editions, some of which differed considerably, from the beginning to the middle of the 19th century also leaves some fairy tales in their original dialect, despite some considerable editing.
Johann Peter Hebel from Wiesental is considered to be the pioneer of the dialect literature that began in the early 19th century . Some of the dialect authors in German-speaking Switzerland were under his influence, such as the poet pastor Jonas Breitenstein from Basel .
At the beginning of the 20th century, Paul Haller created the Juramareili, an independent verse epic in a Swiss-German dialect, thus establishing the claim of modern dialect literature in Switzerland to address socially relevant topics.
Gerhart Hauptmann tried to give his theater pieces greater naturalism by letting the actors speak in their various native dialects, especially Silesian. The same applies to Theodor Storm , who often let his characters speak in a Low German dialect in his dialogues .
Main Products
Literature on the subject
- Joseph Berlinger : The contemporary German dialect poem. On the theory and practice of German-language dialect poetry 1950–1980. Peter Lang, Frankfurt am Main a. a. 1983, ISBN 3-8204-7813-2 (= Regensburg contributions to German linguistics and literary studies. Series B: Investigations. Vol. 23). (At the same time: Dissertation University of Regensburg, 1983).
- Hans-Rüdiger Fluck : Newer German dialect poetry: forms, programs and perspectives. In: Dialectology. A manual for German and general dialect research. Edited by Werner Besch, Ulrich Knoop, Wolfgang Putschke, Herbert Ernst Wiegand. Second half volume. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 1983, pp. 1651–1666.
- Walter Haas : Dialect as the language of literary works. In: Dialectology. A manual for German and general dialect research. Edited by Werner Besch, Ulrich Knoop, Wolfgang Putschke, Herbert Ernst Wiegand. Second half volume. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 1983, pp. 1637–1651.
