First-Year Writing Seminar (101-8-1)
Topic
Are you what you speak? Language and politics in C
Instructors
Elisabeth Elliott
847/491-8082
Kresge Hall, 3-305, 1880 Campus Dr.
Meeting Info
Harris Hall L05: Mon, Wed 9:30AM - 10:50AM
Overview of class
Class title: Are You What You Speak? Language and Politics in Central and Eastern Europe
Is Kashubian (Cassubian; kaszëbsczi jãzëk; or in Polish język kaszubski) a dialect of Polish or a separate West Slavic language closely related to Polish? In Ukraine are Russian-speaking Ukrainians Ukrainians? Are German-speaking Turks in Germany Germans? Are Sorbian-speaking Germans in Germany Germans? Are Czech and Slovak the same or different languages? In Estonia if you only speak Russian can you be Estonian? This course explores the deep connections among language, identity, and power in a region shaped by shifting borders, political upheavals, linguistic diversity, and cultural and dialectal continua. We'll examine how language is used as a tool of identity and nation marking and building, resistance, and exclusion to the point of often denying identity. Topics to be examined include: language myths, language vs. dialect, language policies, language planning, language and identity, language rights.
As the final paper for this course, students will work on any geopolitical area in the world and examine the sociolinguistic issues particular to that region or linguistic variety.
Some previous papers, for example, have looked at:
· the role of Japanese in Korea;
· Koreans in Japan and language discrimination issues;
· the languages of South Africa;
· the status of African-American English (or African-American Vernacular English, or Black English) in the US and the controversy surrounding it in the 1990s in the Oakland, CA school district;
· US language change and the Internet and social media;
· Celtic in Ireland;
· the successful revival of a dead language, e.g., Hebrew, as the official language of Israel;
· the successful revival of a dying language, e.g., Native American/Amerindian languages, Hawai'ian, etc.;
· language rights in the EU;
· American Indian/Amerindian languages;
· bilingualism in the US or Canada;
· ASL (American Sign Language);
· Kurdish language discrimination in Turkey;
· and other topics.
Class Attributes
WCAS Writing Seminar
Enrollment Requirements
Enrollment Requirements: Weinberg First Year Seminars are only available to first-year students.