230164 Exploring Cultural Conceptualisations in the Global South (S) (SoSe 2019)

In this class, we will look at cultural conceptualisations and their realisations in language and cultural productions and hence, we will combine linguistics with literary and cultural studies in the Cultural Linguistics paradigm (cf. Sharifian 2017). We will explore in what ways linguistic structures, text types and fictional genres shape the way speakers make sense of the world and of their experiences. Furthermore, we will investigate how those conceptualisations are reflected in many aspects of human life. For instance, how do cultural metaphors, schemes or categories work and construct meanings that are specific of the speaker’s community? In this sense we are interested, for example, in the world views implied in the genre of the melodrama. Furthermore, we may ask ourselves to what extent the detective novel can be seen as an expression of experiencing modernity. Thus, we will look at instantiations of cultural conceptualisations in cultural productions, most notably in literature and film, but students are invited to add other genres of cultural expression. Geographically, we will focus on the Global South, i.e. on cultural conceptualisations related to European languages and fictional genres as they have been assimilated in Southern Africa and Latin America. The guiding question will be to what extent the adaptation of European languages and fictional genres to local circumstances give expression to new and particular meanings and imaginaries.

Literaturangaben

Sharifian, Farzad.2017. Cultural Linguistics. Amsterdam: Benjamins.