21st Сentury World Englishes: Language Varieties and Standard

This class offers a broad overview of English dialects and accents in their social, political, and ethno-cultural context. The main goal of this course is to acquaint students with interdisciplinary research at the boundary of linguistics, sociology, cultural studies, and literary history. The students will have a chance to study the role dialects and accents played in literature starting from "Pygmalion" by B. Shaw to "Skagboys" by I. Welsh. The class involves a significant amount of writing. For midterm and final papers, students will be expected to discuss one of the aspects dialectology using interdisciplinary approach or to work out a showcase of one English dialect. The course might be of special interest for students thinking of majoring in Literature, History of Civilizations, History of Arts, Sociology and Anthropology, as well as International relations. The reading material includes extracts from fiction, newspapers and magazines, television programs, poetry, academic papers, and advertisements.