ENGL383
References
BBC (no date) Think Wigan, think
pie! Available at: http://www.
bbc.co.uk/manchester/content/
articles/2006/12/14/141206_
wigan_pie_feature.shtml
(Accessed: 13 May 2016).
Catterall, S. (2005) ‘“Otherness”
plus the Three Cs minus Orwell:
“The Wigan pier experience”’,
Labour History Review, Vol. 70,
pp. 103–112.
Dobson, B. and Topping, E.
(eds.) (1983) Living Lancashire:
Anthology of Lancashire dialect
verse and stories. Blackpool:
Landy Publishing Co.
Hodson, J. (2014) Varieties of
English in film and literature.
Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Figure 2: Duncan Turton’s 1974 painting depicting survivors of
the Maypole Colliery disaster that occurred in 1908
people. When the narrator
says ‘aah’ve geet mi yed
screwed on reet road/ Un
besides…Aah’v geet mi
Dreams’, his strong use
of dialect, highlights that
while he recognises he
is attempting to elevate
himself socially by doing his
apprenticeship, his use of
very Wigan-specific dialect
shows that he still feels a
connection to his roots, and
may be seen as an attempt
to show his father that he still
respects him and the family
environment. ‘Yed’ is a
Wigan term meaning ‘head’,
and it is not commonly used
outside of the town. The use
of dialect here reinforces
both to the reader and to
the narrator’s father that
he still sees himself as a
working-class Wiganer. The
dialect words again place
symbolic distance between
the reader, and the narrator
and his father.
Analysing some of the
aspects of dialect literature
that are present in the two
poems discussed, and
the indexical meanings
about
the
culture
of
working-class
Wiganers,
supports Catterall’s claims
that Wigan is a place of
‘‘otherness’ in ‘our’ own
land’. Its unique social and
economic history separates
Wigan from the rest of
the country, and it is clear
that the use of Lancashire
Dialect poetry employed by
Wigan amateur writers such
as Unsworth seeks to put
distance between ‘outsiders’
and the people represented
within these poems.
109
Walpole,
J.R.
(1974)
‘Eye
dialect in fictional dialogue’,
College
Composition
and
Communication,Vol. 25, pp. 191–196.
Wigan Heritage Service. (2008)
‘Remembering the Past: Maypole,
18th August 1908’, Past Forward,
Vol. 49, p. 2.
Wigan World (2016) Wigan
dialect: Wiganworld. Available
at: http://www.wiganworld.co.uk/
stuff/dialect1.php?opt=dialect1#j
(Accessed: 12 May 2016).
Wright, P. (1976) Lancashire
Dialect.
United
Kingdom:
Dalesman Publishing Co.
—(1982)
Lancashireman’s
Dictionary.
United
Kingdom:
Dalesman Publishing Co.
—(1991) Lanky Twang. United
Kingdom: Dalesman Publishing.
Wright, J., Bakhtin, M.M., Holquist,
M. and Emerson, C. (1998) The
dialogic imagination four essays.
Austin: University of Texas Press.