230067 Accents and Dialects in British Film and Literature (S) (SoSe 2020)

The British Isles are home to a great variety of different accents, dialects and languages, and this course provides a survey of the dominant language varieties used. Most importantly, however, this class tackles the issue of dialect and accent representation in both film and literature. We will explore the many ways in which language variation is to be understood as an artistic medium that helps to characterise the social and aesthetic world of the cultural productions in which it is used. Introducing the concept of ficto-linguistics, we will see how language variation is constructed and needs the active collaboration of the writer and/or the film-maker with their audience or readership to be fully functional.

Teilnahmevoraussetzungen, notwendige Vorkenntnisse

Dear students,
As you will have realized, this term will have to be organized very differently from all previous ones. I will try to make this class run as smoothly as possible, but this will entail a considerable effort on my part as well as on yours.
This is why you will have to send my a short text (of no more than 150 to 200 words) on your motivations to take this seminar, on the things you would like to learn and - most importantly - which area/topic you would like to focus on for your independent study project as a 'Studienleistung'. Preferably, you have already a particular film/book/author or dialect/population group etc. in mind. This will help me to organize you into student groups.

If I do not receive this text by Apil 20 (preferably well before that), I will assume that you are not planning on taking this class after all.
For some possible ideas, you may consult the (preliminary) course outline in the 'Lernraum' and may find some of the the readings already uploaded inspirational. But you are free to suggest new/other topics, which I may decide to add to the agenda.
Kind regards,
Anne Schröder