230102 Black Voices Matter: Linguistics meets Literary and Cultural Studies (BS) (WiSe 2017/2018)

This class is a comprehensive survey of linguistic research on African American Vernacular English (AAVE), the language of the black community in the U.S.A. and the best investigated non-standard variety of English. Before exploring historical, sociological, political, cultural and educational issues connected with AAVE, we will need to have a detailed look at the linguistic features of this language on all levels of linguistic description. This will help us to understand that AAVE is not a compilation of random deviations of Standard English but that it is a rule-governed language system in its own right. Subsequently, we will look at the historical development of the language, its role in the U.S. educational system, investigate in detail its use in various forms of literature and media, and discuss its significance for U.S. American culture at large.

As this block seminar covers the credit for all three of the required courses in PM3, students should have completed both BM1 and BM2. Students without any credits or completed courses in PM3 are ideally suited to benefit fully from this block module format, but students with some credits in PM3 are welcome to join the block seminar as well.

Requirements for participation, required level

As this block seminar covers the credit for all three of the required courses in PM3, students should have completed both BM1 and BM2. Students without any credits or completed courses in PM3 are ideally suited to benefit fully from this block module format, but students with some credits in PM3 are welcome to join the block seminar as well.

Bibliography

A list of literature will be provided in our LernraumPlus website.