230166 Language and identity in Britain (S) (SoSe 2014)

Contemporary British society is an amalgam of cultures. There are two general groups. The first belong to the contiguous territories currently comprising the UK, i.e. Northern Ireland, Wales, etc. The second consists of waves of immigrants beginning with the turn of the 20th century, i.e. Indians and Bangladeshi. Each of these has contributed to creating a vibrant multicultural and multilinguistic society. In this course, we will discuss how these groups have shaped the British socio-political landscape through their distinct cultures and languages. We will focus on how the multicultural reality has shaped multiculturalism and its policies, by taking into account historical processes, the iconic position of English as the world’s most important transactional language, modern communicative technologies, and the drive toward cultural and linguistic preservation.