URL for course website: http://english.chass.ncsu.edu/Herman/Eng527-2003.html
Course Description:
Welcome! In this course we will study discourse, which is sometimes defined as units of language beyond the sentence. We will examine discourse from several (overlapping) perspectives, viewing it as (1) a type of event, specifically a verbal exchange (i.e., language-based mode of interaction) involving human agents; (2) the linguistic content of that exchange; and (3) the "structure of information that is presupposed and/or conveyed by the interlocutors during the course of the discourse event in view of the explicit content of the exchange" (Roberts 1999). The readings for the course are designed to show how different research traditions—ethnographic and sociological as well as sociolinguistic, pragmatic, and cognitive-linguistic—furnish tools for studying discourse viewed as verbal exchange, linguistic content, and structure of information.
In addition, we will adopt tools from "critical discourse analysis" and other research initiatives to study how discourse both stems from and helps reinforce larger social assumptions and practices. Among those assumptions and practices are ones bearing on participants’ identities (including their gender identities) and their modes of agency. Thus, besides examining discourse from the three perspectives mentioned above, we will also study (4) the ideological underpinnings and social implications of both discourse events and discourse structures. The final part of the course will focus on narrative analysis as a case study, combining ideas from several research traditions to provide a sense of how multiple methods of discourse analysis can be brought to bear on one particular type of discourse.
Texts:
+ Readings available on electronic reserve (http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/rbr/index.html). Type in ENG527, section 001, or use my last name and English 527 as descriptors. All course materials on electronic reserve are marked "[ER]" on the class schedule that you can access via the link below. You will need to download and install Adobe Reader (www.adobe.com), if you haven’t done so already, to read the chapters on reserve. (Please note that hard copies of all materials on e-reserve will also be available for 2-hour checkout from the reserve room at D.H. Hill library.) Click here to see a list all of the materials placed on electronic reserve for our class.
Click here for information about course requirements and the basis for grades.
Meanwhile, click here for a day-by-day class schedule.