Module description
It is estimated that around 6,000 languages are spoken across the world, but projections say that by the end of this century at least half of these languages will no longer exist if they are not transmitted to younger generations. In this module we will consider examples of literary expression in minor, lesser-used and endangered languages from around the world. We will focus on poetry to explore the creativity and vitality of ‘minor’ literatures from the nineteenth century to the present day. We will examine how writers have responded to the decline in language diversity and how they envisage literature's role vis-à-vis linguistic change: as a form of resistance against the demands of globalised cultural production, as a way of documenting and memorialising local life, and/or a means to revitalise, transform or adapt language through aesthetic expression. Issues that are likely to be discussed include translation and recognition of literature in minor languages, self-transaltion, multilingualism, minority and diasporic identities, questions of authenticity, politics, and power relations. There will be space for students to contribute reading from minor or minoritized languages that they know.
Assessment details
4000 word end semester essay (100%)
Educational aims & objectives
This module provides students with a critical examination of literature in lesser-used and endangered languages from the 19thcentury to the present. It should appeal broadly to Comparative Literature and Modern Languages students, through focusing issues of multilingualism, translation, and the relation between major and minor languages, which are of fundamental importance to both disciplines. By the end of the module, it aims to have provided students with:
- enhanced critical understanding of what it means to write in a minor language in the modern and contemporary period
- detailed knowledge of specific case studies from a variety of world languages
- enhanced appreciation of the implications of minor languages for the theories and methods of comparative literature, world literature and the modern languages
Learning outcomes
By the end of this module, students should be able to demonstrate intellectual, transferable and practicable skills appropriate to a Level 6 module and in particular will be able to
- critically review, consolidate and extend the body of knowledge relating to literary expression in the minor languages, demonstrating an ability to make points and connections across the area of study
- formulate coherent written and oral responses to the issues, themes, concepts and debates traversed by the module. More particularly, they should be able to:
- demonstrate a sound understanding of the concept of ‘minor’ and its wider implications for literary theory and history;
- demonstrate a detailed knowledge of the impact of language endangerment and the rise of global languages on minor literatures, including on their production, circulation, and reception, imparted through some specific case studies;
- demonstrate an ability to critically evaluate arguments about the status of literature in minor languages, in the light of different theories and methods of comparative and world literature;
- demonstrate an ability to analyse comparatively texts from a variety of cultural and linguistic contexts, responding critically to concepts of heritage identity, tradition, authenticity, globalisation, and innovation.
Students will also be given the opportunity to develop their independent research skills and ability to work collaboratively.
Teaching pattern
1-hour lecture and 1-hour seminar weekly
Suggested reading list
Copies of poems and other seminar reading will be provided on KEATS and via the online reading list. In preparation for the module, I recommend taking a look at the Modern Poetry in Translation special issue “The Dialect of the Tribe” (which we will use in seminars) and David Harrison’s book When Languages Die (Oxford University Press, 2007).