160129 PS Additional course in this subject area (2018S)

Bourdieu and linguistics

In this proseminar we will intensively read and discuss Pierre Bourdieu's seminal book "Language and power" in its German translation "Was heisst sprechen: Zur Ökonomie des sprachlichen Tausches" (French original: "Ce que parler veut dire", published in 1982), the most important of his writings for linguistics. This means that we will read and discuss a chapter of this book every week. Therefore, the willingness to read and discuss continuously in German is the most important requirement to attend this course. It is thus the goal of the proseminar that students read this important work which hasn't lost its importance for applied linguistics, sociolinguistics, and other related fields. Also they should learn how to formulate relevant questions and to lead discussions that tackle an understanin of the read text. At the end of the semester, students will have to write a proseminar paper, in which they articulate their reflections on the relevance of Bourdieu for linguistics today.