Instr: Patricia Mayes
Office: CRT 486; 229-6992
e-mail: mayes@uwm.edu
Office hours: TBA
Course Information: W 3:30pm-6:10pm; CRT 321
This seminar will introduce students to the interdisciplinary field of discourse analysis, by examining work from three different theoretical perspectives. Students will work with written or spoken discourse that they have selected in order to address questions concerning the role of language in the construction of social identities and relationships and social institutions. For example, a student interested in the study of spoken interaction in the workplace might examine discourse from a bank transaction in order to discover how the participants are able to use the turn-taking system to accomplish their goals. A student interested in how political identities are constructed in the written media might analyze the use of particular expressions to create identities that are viewed as desirable or undesirable. For instance, the mere juxtaposition of references to Iraq and al Qaeda allows an inference of similarity or sameness, and such ways of using language obviously have far-reaching consequences. By the end of the semester, students in the course will be aware of the advantages and disadvantages of using different theoretical approaches to address particular research questions as well as the possibility of combining more than one approach.
