Popular Culture phenomena (e.g. television, film, music, literature, gaming, media, advertising, etc.) are fascinating because they are both defined and are defined by societies. Likewise, the language of pop culture is influenced by those who engage with it, but influences the way that those same people think, feel, act, and speak. In this module, we will explore how language and popular culture interact, drawing on concepts from several disciplines, including linguistics, communications, stylistics, critical and cultural theories, sociology, and media studies. We will consider both how language is used in pop culture texts (e.g. linguistic creativity in memes) and how language is represented in pop culture texts (e.g. dialect and vernacular in gaming). Aspects of ‘popular’ and ‘legitimised’ culture will be presented, and students will critically compare features of language associated with ‘mainstream’, ‘high culture’, and ‘subversive’ texts. We will analyse the ways in which text producers echo or exploit cultural understandings, stereotypes, or ‘norms’ to make meanings in written, spoken, visual, and multi-modal texts.

• Assess notions of ‘culture’ from a critical perspective
• Discuss artefacts of popular culture as objects of scholarly inquiry
• Critically evaluate the social, historical and cultural contexts of the production and interpretation of popular culture texts
• Apply a range of theories of language and communication
• Analyse popular culture texts in a variety of modes

The module will be taught through a blend of synchronous and asynchronous learning classes and activities, designed to fulfil the learning outcomes. These will be delivered remotely, and on-campus if the University deems it safe and practicable.

This module encourages students to assess theories of language and apply them to the analysis of a number of forms of popular culture. Students will enhance critical abilities in reflecting upon sociocultural ‘value’ and what determines ‘popular’ versus ‘legitimised’ culture. Using tools from language and communication studies, students will collect, archive, and analyse multimodal data in terms of language use and language representation. Assessment tasks will further students’ ability to: identify trends; critically integrate interdisciplinary theories; describe and analyse communicative themes; come to (scientific) conclusions regarding popular culture phenomena. Skills practised in this module will be transferrable to a range of professions such as: publishing, marketing, journalism, social media management, public relations, copywriting, archival science, and customer relations.

A blend of coursework and portfolio assessments.

The module will include a selection of most of the following topics:

• Popular vs. legitimised culture
• Intertextuality/interdiscursivity
• Characterisation in literature
• Representation in film and television
• Ideology in music lyrics
• Language of video games
• Recontextualisation in fandoms
• Appropriation/mainstreaming of vernacular
• Internet language and linguistic creativity
• Structure and language of memes
• Counterculture and subversion

Course readings will be made available on Learning Central.

• Blommaert, J. (2005). Discourse: A critical introduction. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.
• Gee, J. P. (2008). Social linguistics and literacies: Ideology in discourses. New York: Routledge.
• Kramsch, C. Language and culture. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 1998.
• Moody, A. (2010). The Englishes of popular cultures. In A. Kirkpatrick (Ed.), The Routledge handbook of world Englishes (pp. 535–49). London, England: Routledge.
• Savan, L. (2006). Slam dunks and no-brainers: Pop language in your life, the media, and like . . . whatever. Vintage.
• Storey, J. (2009). Cultural theory and popular culture: An introduction (Fifth.). New York: Pearson/Longman.