This course explores how language shapes and is shaped by the unequal distribution of power in modern societies. The role of language will be considered in, for example, the maintenance of sexual difference, the establishment and maintenance of national identity, and the conflict between social classes. The reading will consist of literary and theoretical texts, the latter including such writers as Bourdieu, Bakhtin, Foucault, Cameron, Lakoff, Ngugi wa Thion’go, and Paulin. Prereq: Level at least 3A
