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Description
The module will examine the complex relationship between language, power, and ideology in Germany society, and will trace how language has been employed in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries by individuals, groups, organisations, and institutions to exercise power and to communicate a particular ideology or world-view. During this module, we will address a variety of linguistic topics and issues, including political discourse, defining 'propaganda' or 'ideological language'; the 鈥榤isuse鈥� of language; the nature of linguistic groups; language planning. The analysis of primary texts will draw upon aspects of linguistic theory, including sociolinguistics, semantics, stylistics, pragmatics, and multimodal critical discourse analysis. The module will focus on the following topics:
- discourses of fascism and contemporary right-wing extremism
- language in postwar East and West Germany
- Wende discourses
- language and gender
- media and advertising discourses
Reading List/ Suggested Reading:
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W. J. Dodd, National Socialism and German Discourse: Unquiet Voices (London, Palgrave Macmillan, 2018)
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Annabelle Mooney and Betsy Evans, Language, Society and Power. An Introduction (London, Routledge). In particular, Chapters 3 and 4.
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Patrick Stevenson (ed.), The German Language and the Real World (Oxford, Clarendon, 1997)
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Patrick Stevenson, Language and German Disunity: A Sociolinguistic History of East and West in Germany, 1945-2000 (Oxford, Clarendon, 2002)
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Ruth Wodak, The Politics of Fear. What Right-Wing Populist Discourses Mean (Thousand Oaks, Sage, 2015)
Please note: This module description is accurate at the time of publication. Minor amendments may be made prior to the start of the academic year.
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Module deliveries for 2024/25 academic year
Last updated
This module description was last updated on 8th April 2024.
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