This module develops students’ critical awareness of the relationship between global languages and geopolitical power imbalances that mark the current world-order. Through a mixed approach combining the applied study of Romance linguistics, postcolonial critical thought, and cultural analysis, the module leads students to deconstruct linguistic myths sustaining rhetorics of hegemony. Covering a varied range of key cultural artefacts and media produced in different Romance languages around the world, the module situates language and culture in historical and geopolitical terms leading to questions concerning their use as a tool for domination, leading students to critically reassess their own role in this transnational process in their position as speakers endowed with agency.
Learning Outcomes
By the end of the module students should be able to:
compare and contrast linguistic systems and sociohistoric contexts of globally-spoken Romance languages and related varieties.
demonstrate their comparative analytical skills with attention to specific linguistic, historic, socio-political and cultural contexts.
identify and critique expressions of inequality and hegemony in language, culture and context.
discuss orally and in writing how language and power structures within languages and cultures have shaped social and cultural histories.
Assessment
30828-01 : Digital project : Coursework (25%)
30828-02 : 500 word reflective essay : Coursework (25%)
30828-03 : 1,000 word critical essay : Coursework (50%)
Assessment Methods & Exceptions
Assessment:
1x digital project with a 5-minute oral presentation component, 500 words equivalent (25%). This assessment will be done in English.
1x 500 words reflective essay (25%). If staff involved in the delivery of the module are fluent in Portuguese this assessment can alternatively be done in Portuguese for students taking this language. All other students will write the assignment in English.
1x 1,000 words critical essay (50%). This assessment will be done in English.