dr A. Handley, Intertextual Encounters: Interrogating the Presence of Art in Literature, Film and Music Video
Works of art have often been appropriated and repurposed by other artists, working in different art forms. The course is designed to make you aware of the multiple relationships that exist between visual and literary/textual art forms, and to invite you to explore the turbulent and often subversive nature of those relationships. The main objectives of the course are to learn how to read works intertextually, i.e., to identify how artworks have been appropriated by other artists; to explore the interrelationship between different art forms; and to reflect on the nature of a creative process which is inspired by artworks ancient and modern. We will focus primarily on the presence of visual arts (e.g., painting, sculpture, and photography) in 20th and 21st century literature, film and music video, engaging in an analysis of representative literary and visual sources, and selections from critical and theoretical texts. You will study work by W.H. Auden, Seamus Heaney, M. NourbeSe Philip, Beyonce, Thomas Struth, and more. You will be encouraged to adopt individual, creative approaches to works of art and literature; and to explore such concepts as intermediality and ekphrasis.
dr J. Milewski, Why Won’t They Just Say What They Mean? On Symbols in American Literature and Culture
When you eat together, you’re allies. When you go underground, you’re in the land of the dead. Unless you’re not. In this course we will tackle symbolism, discussing major tropes and themes recurring in a variety of (mostly American) works, as well as analyzing their purpose and the ways in which they open texts up to interpretation. We will also look into what happens when an author subverts the tropes, or when the symbols are not easily readable. The course will thus equip students with the broad ability to identify symbols and use their interpretation in text analysis, as well as improve their overall familiarity with American literature and culture.
dr K. Małecka, “All but Death, can be Adjusted”: Loss, Grief, and Bibliotherapy
This course will look at various representations of loss and grief in literature and culture. It will explore how those representations and reflections upon death-related issues can help grieving people as well as those who support them. Some of the questions we will try to answer in this course are: Do we all grieve the same? What are the most common grief reactions? What should we say when someone close to us grieves? How do people try to tame their fear of death? What are the main stages of the bibliotherapeutic process? What mourning rituals are still in existence?
While the leading theme of this course may strike one as grave or even morbid, the works we will look at offer not only comforting ideas with which many people can easily identify, but also a lot of dark humor that can help brighten the thought about the one thing none of us can avoid in the end.
prof. K. Ciepiela, Language in use
This course is an introduction to how language is used in infinitely intriguing ways in different contexts, and how even a rigorous linguistic analysis of these areas can be fascinating.
While language is a particularly important part of communication, we accept that the context of language use (linguistic and non-linguistic) is crucial for understanding what meaning is being expressed. We adopt a functional approach to language and language analysis, an approach that starts with language in use rather than abstract theories. A function is a use to which something is put. Language is used for many purposes, which perhaps all have in common that meaning is conveyed. Therefore, the focus of the course is on how meaning is constructed and conveyed across contexts, and on what other goals interactants aim to accomplish in communication. In particular, the main topics of the course include: (i) Semiotic codes of communication (ii) Verbal and non-verbal communication, (iii) Spoken and written language, (iv) Talk in interaction, (v) Language variation across interactional contexts and cultures, (vi) Multilingualism, (vii) Language and identities.
J. Fruzińska, The Disney Version
The course will be devoted to a discussion of Walt Disney Company’s post-1989 animated films. Students will watch chosen animated productions (eg. The Little Mermaid, Hunchback of Notre Dame, Treasure Planet) and read the literary sources that the films are based on. We shall discuss the changes introduced by the Disney Company, with a particular focus on ideological ones. In the final class students will be asked to write a short essay concerning the films they will have watched.
prof. P. Krakowian, Modern orientations in ESL
While learner interest and involvement are crucial to achieving success in ELF/ESL, schools are having a hard time competing with the appeals of what life has to offer outside school. This orientation class looks at some persistent issues in ELT and offers practical and technical solutions to improve the attractiveness and appeal of classroom learning. Selected topics include the following: Kahoot, Socrative and visualization technology, Netflix, YouTube and other streaming services, Tik-Tok, podcasts and vlogs, authentic materials, WebQuests, language games, role-playing and simulations. This content is paired with a presentation of selected issues in the field of EFL/ESL in order to provide a comprehensive perspective on the learning/teaching process, with special emphasis on the role of popular technology in language learning, new technologies and the Internet in teaching, mobile learning, distance learning, online learning environments and authoring tools, online assessment and computerized/electronic portfolia in skill development and language assessment.
prof. K. Kosecki, Translation
The course focuses on basic concepts and strategies of translation from English into Polish and Polish into English, such as the role of context, equivalence on and above the word level, idioms, culture-related concepts, pragmatics, and cognitive and communicative aspects of the process. They will be discussed and put into practice on the basis of many exercises ranging from single sentences to short texts and individually assigned tasks.
J. Crust M.A., Yiddish Language and Culture, in English
Yiddish was the traditional language of the Jewish people in Poland and Eastern Europe for centuries. Gradually, this unique culture and language would spread far and wide, to the United States, Canada, Argentina, and beyond, impacting local cultures and pop culture in one form or another. The children of Yiddish-speaking immigrants from Poland and Eastern Europe pretty well invented Hollywood, the comic book superhero (Superman and Batman are Jewish; Spider-Man is half Jewish, half Czech), and Las Vegas as we know it today. Literature, cinema, and theater also grew from the Yiddish language and culture. Of course, Łódź played a central role in the story, being the second largest Yiddish center in Europe (after Warsaw) before the Second World War, the third largest in the world. Yiddish, no doubt, impacted Polish culture, and vice versa. Curiously, feminism also has an interesting role in the history, Yiddish being the so-called “mama-loshen,” the mother tongue, the mother language. This course will look at the incredible world of Yiddish language and culture, in English, with a multi-media approach, looking at film, music, radio, and more.
dr K. Ojrzyńska, Freakery
What were freak shows and why did they disappear from our cultural landscape? Who were freaks? How were people with atypical bodyminds ‘made’ freaks? Who are contemporary freaks?
The course looks into representations of freaks and freak shows (in literature, film, arts, and the media) and their evolution in the 20th and 21st centuries. We are going to reflect on these cultural texts, using analytical tools offered by contemporary critical disability studies (the models of disability, Rosemarie Garland-Thomson’s theory of staring, crip theory, the concept of a supercrip, and more).
The works that we are going to examine include: Freaks (1932, dir. Tod Browning), The Elephant Man (dir. David Lynch), Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus (2006, dir. Steven Shainberg), poems about the ‘Little Man from Nuremberg’ (Matthias Buchinger) and the ‘Irish Giant’ (Charles Byrne), fragments of Katherine Dunn’s novel Geek Love (1989), and performances by Mat Fraser.
prof. M. Cieślak, Playing Detective - Tracing Literary Sources in Contemporary Literature and Film
The course will look at a range of contemporary texts and films that draw inspiration from well-known and often canonical works of literature. Sometimes the inspirations are obvious, sometimes they’re quite obscure. Some “adaptations” take their sources seriously, others play with them, parody them, or simply take them to a very different dimension. The objective of the course will be to play detective, that is to trace the inspirations underlying the discussed texts and films and, more importantly, to figure out the logic behind those adaptation attempts. Ultimately, we’ll be trying to see what mysteries contemporary writers and unveil when reaching out to older literary texts.
Suggested texts to be studied: Angela Carter’s stories from The Bloody Chamber, John Gardner’s Grendel, Jonathan Levine’s Warm Bodies, David Michod’s The King, Gary Shore’s Dracula Untold, Burr Steers’ Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. Your suggestions will be invited.
dr P. Ostalski, Linguistic puzzles in syntax and morphology (and different ways to solve them)
The objective of the course is to give students an overview of the syntactic and morphological variation across different languages of the world. The course analyzes linguistic puzzles/problems and provides a unique educational activity that combines analytic reasoning and linguistic/cultural awareness. Students learn about the richness, diversity and systematicity of language, while exercising natural logic and reasoning skills. Additionally students discover ways in which speakers of different languages approach reality.
dr S. O'Brien, Documentary Theatre in Britain
Documentary Theatre is a genre of theatre that uses sources found outside a theatrical context (such as interviews, reports, or journals) as the raw material for a dramatic performance. In Britain, theatremakers have used the form to address some of the most divisive social and political issues in recent decades. Institutional racism in the police, the invasion of Iraq, serial killings, and terrorism have all been addressed by theatremakers using this documentary approach. At the same time, the use of documentary techniques can afford a degree of anonymity that can be used by playwrights to present more personal testimony on the stage. This course will explore a variety of these British documentary plays, from verbatim musicals to works that criticise and seek to
deconstruct the documentary form. Students will examine how documentary materials are collected, edited and staged by theatremakers, and interrogate the ethics of these different approaches. Works that will be discussed include Alecky Blythe and Adam Cork’s London Road, David Hare’s The Permanent Way, Richard Norton-Taylor’s The Colour of Justice, and Dennis Kelly’s Taking
Care of Baby among others. The course will be examined by assignments and a quiz at the end of the semester.
prof. M. Hinton, Fundamental Questions of Language
On this course, you will be asked to consider the most fundamental questions concerning language and its use. The class will be discussion based, and each week we'll try to answer such questions as: Where does language come from? Can we think without language? How does language refer to reality? How is language linked to thought? Does language have rules and how would we know? Although these questions are philosophical in nature, we'll be addressing them as linguists and particularly interested in the way that they impact on the practice of linguistics.
prof. M. Hołda, Beauty Matters: The Epiphanic and Transformative Power of the Beautiful
The aim of this course is to explore the notion of beauty from a literary, artistic, and philosophical perspective. We will be preoccupied with a range of works that interrogate beauty’s epiphanic, transformative, and recuperative role in human existence. The course pays special attention to three prominent faculties of beauty: evidentness, radiance, and measure. Hans-Georg Gadamer’s hermeneutic aesthetics and his rejuvenation of Plato’s philosophy of beauty and truth belonging together will serve as the philosophical backdrop of our reflection.
Considering the question of beauty, we will also investigate imaginative interconnections between literary works and works of art. The schedule will encompass a host of literary and visual artists: the Pre-Raphaelite artists (John Everett Millais, John William Waterhouse, Dante Gabriel Rossetti), William Blake, Virginia Woolf, Iris Murdoch, and others.
The course will prompt the development of effective discussion of topics pertaining to the question of beauty. We will use the British Library readings and Poetry Foundation, Art UK, Tate Gallery, Art & Object (websites), as well as other resources as a creative stimulus. To receive a positive grade, students are obliged to participate actively and to give a talk and/or write an essay on a topic selected from the list of proposals.
dr M. Molenda, Introduction to pedagogical lexicography
The course introduces students to pedagogical lexicography. We will explore theoretical basis of the lexicographic description as well as practical aspects of dictionary building.
prof. A. Wicher, Anglophone Fantastic Literature
The tutorial is, generally speaking, focused on (mainly anglophone) fantastic literature (fantasy and science fiction) in its historical development, starting with the Gothic novel and ending with the late 20th c. fantasy literature. The planned semester papers should concern the above mentioned genres, including film adaptations. Longer texts will be discussed on the basis of selected excerpts. The syllabus is open to negotiation.
prof. M. Hinton, Fundamental Questions of Language
On this course, you will be asked to consider the most fundamental questions concerning language and its use. The class will be discussion based, and each week we'll try to answer such questions as: Where does language come from? Can we think without language? How does language refer to reality? How is language linked to thought? Does language have rules and how would we know? Although these questions are philosophical in nature, we'll be addressing them as linguists and particularly interested in the way that they impact on the practice of linguistics.
dr S. O'Brien, Global Shakespeares: Adaptations of Shakespeare’s plays in different global contexts.
Shakespeare’s plays have been translated into over 100 languages and been performed for a variety of audiences across the globe. This course will examine a selection of these global adaptations, from literary reinterpretations of the plays to film adaptations. Students will explore the various routes along which Shakespeare’s plays have travelled across the world and how these routes have been shaped by social, political, and cultural influences. This course will seek to shed light on the complex interplay of local and global factors that have helped Shakespeare become the global phenomenon he is today. In addition to Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Othello and Macbeth, we will also look at a selection of stage and screen adaptations of these plays. Texts for this course include Sulayman Al-Bassam’s Al-Hamlet Summit, Tom Stoppard’s Dogg’s Hamlet, Cahoot’s Macbeth, and Paula Vogel’s Desdemona, a play about a handkerchief. The course will be assessed by assignments and a quiz at the end of the semester.
dr P. Ostalski, Linguistic puzzles in semantics and phonology (and different ways to solve them)
The objective of the course is to give students an overview of the semantic and phonological variation across different languages of the world. The course analyzes linguistic puzzles/problems and provides a unique educational activity that combines analytic reasoning and linguistic/cultural awareness. Students learn about the richness, diversity and systematicity of language, while exercising natural logic and reasoning skills. Additionally students discover ways in which speakers of different languages approach reality.
dr W. Pskit, Word-formation across languages
The aim of the course is to explore topics in word-formation in English, Polish and (selected) other languages and to equip students with research tools facilitating contrastive word-formation studies. The issues to be discussed include basic concepts in morphology and word-formation, simple and complex words, inflection and derivation, productivity in word-formation, a contrastive approach to word-formation processes in English, Polish and (selected) other languages, and selected contemporary theoretical approaches in morphology.
dr hab. prof. UŁ Magdalena Cieślak, From Vampires and Zombies to Androids and Replicants – The Anxieties of Humanity in Literature and Culture
In classical literature, monsters are typically creatures of the dark, incarnations of evil, sin or the devil. They function to discipline humans, and help them become better, stronger, and wiser. In the face of a monstrous adversary, heroes are born, teams are formed, values are reasserted and defended, and the sense of pride in being human is restored. In contemporary literature and culture, humanity is still challenged by classical monsters, while also being confronted with a slightly different embodiments of our anxieties – androids, replicants, or other variants of AI. Whatever form the “adversary” takes – Dracula 2.0, Lucifer Morningstar, or Nexus 8 – it still fulfils the same function. A disciplining factor, it forces us to reflect on our values and to examine our humanity, as well as reveals our fears and invites us to confront them.
The seminar will examine how various figures of the (monstrous?) Other, from the more classical to very posthuman, are used to diagnose the changing anxieties of humanity, and how those fears, and underlying desires, define how humanity sees itself. Discussing those liminal characters, we will be often exploring apocalyptic or dystopian settings, looking at humanity at the moment of crises. With theoretical background of monster theory, the notion of the Other, apocalypse and posthumanism, we will be discussing varied texts of literature and culture, including such classics as Stoker’s Dracula or Shelly’s Frankenstein, through Matheson’s I Am Legend and Blade Runner(s), to The Last of Us.
dr Magdalena Szuster, Performing America
In this seminar, we will explore the history of American theater in various social, political and economic contexts, focusing on the many forms and manifestations of theater in the USA and its relationship with culture, both high and low. Through such exploration, we will look at theater as a by-product and a representation of American culture, a respondent to counter- and pop culture, a vessel of social change, and a for-profit industry. The discussions will be based primarily on dramatic texts and their movie adaptations (as well as selected critical essays).
dr Katarzyna Małecka, “We read to know we’re not alone”: Reading and Writing as Supportive Acts
This course looks at how reading and writing have been used by writers to help them come to terms with life challenges. This form of literary support extends to readers who across the ages have used the written word for healing, mood-enhancing, and identity-building purposes. We will explore how engaging with literature helps us practice gratitude, appreciate the world of nature, and face life-altering events. While the course focuses on American writers, representatives from other English-speaking countries will also be included in our discussions.
In her memoir, American writer Anne Roiphe observes, “Writing this book provides a floor under my experience. . . . Perhaps the fact of writing a book is not so life-saving as it seems. But without the book that I am writing which is the one that you are reading I would be a sorrier woman, a shell of a woman, lingering on.” Such views will guide us in our discussions of the supportive role of reading and writing in life.
dr hab. prof. UŁ, Agnieszka Łowczanin, Many Shades of Gothic
During this BA seminar we will look at various manifestations of the Gothic in literature, film and fashion. Beginning with 18th century examples of early terror stories, via Victorian ghost and vampire stories, we will follow the evolution of Gothic forms to contemporary times: to Ian Macabre and Angela Carter’s bloody Gothic chambers, to horror film and Alexander McQueen’s eerie and flamboyant fashion designs. We will focus on how the Gothic has permeated British consciousness, and how, by responding to a variety of social issues, it has become a channel of expressing contemporary anxieties and traumas. The Gothic is serious and politically engaged, but also delightful, uncanny and witty. It toys with our emotions and is capable of both terrifying and making us laugh.
dr Joanna Dyła-Urbańska, Theory and Practice of Literary Translation
The seminar is addressed to all students interested in the art of translation, particularly – but not only – literary translation. We will analyse and discuss possible practical problems encountered by translators in their work and read and talk about texts by translation theorists. Apart from working on strictly literary texts (such as excerpts from novels or short stories), we will also concentrate on song lyrics, film dialogues, advertisements, various articles and essays. We will talk about reception and criticism of different texts translated into Polish, read (and hopefully argue over) translation reviews and carry out comparative analyses of various translations of texts of literature. The seminar is therefore relevant for all students interested in the fascinating world of translation, a truly interdisciplinary field incorporating broad cultural, social and political contexts of contemporary humanist thought.
dr hab, prof. UŁ Mikołaj Deckert, Audiovisual Translation
The BA seminar covers the basic theoretical and practical notions of Audiovisual Translation, or Audiovisual Translation and Media Accessibility. Students will get to know different research methods and tools to choose from for their BA projects which can focus on films as well as video games. An important objective is to make participants aware of the characteristics of particular AVT modes, and enable participants to identify factors that influence the translator’s decisions and those that could shape the viewer/player experience.
The seminar will also focus on the very process of planning, structuring and writing the BA thesis – discussing issues like data types, data selection and collection, hypothesis formulation, referencing, register, and text editing.
dr Łukasz Salski, Language teaching, learning, and acquisition
This course will focus on aspects of language teaching, learning, and acquisition. While interest in and some knowledge of the field is assumed, it is not required that the participants are enrolled in the ELT specialization. The students will be expected to explore a specific area of their choice, both in theory and in a research study (based typically, but not exclusively, on a survey, case study, research in action). The specific topics may vary from language acquisition, bilingualism, and psycholinguistics to teaching a language skill, use of teaching materials, or classroom management. Each participant will be required to write a BA thesis, but the course will stress the writing process in which students will broaden their knowledge as well as develop English language and composition skills.
prof. Piotr Cap, Populist rhetoric of conflict and crisis in the contemporary Polish and European public discourse
This BA seminar explores linguistic patterns of conflict, crisis and threat generation in state-political discourse of post-2015 Poland, positioning the main strategies in line with the populist rhetorical trends dominating right-wing radical and exclusionary discourses in contemporary Europe. It demonstrates that crisis construction, conflict generation and threat management have been at the heart of Polish state-level policies since the Law & Justice (PiS) party came to power in October 2015. The L&J’s threat-based policies are enacted in multiple public discourses focusing on home as well as international issues. The present seminar places its lens on (a) parliamentary discourse directed at parliamentary opposition leaders, (b) presidential and party ‘rhetoric of despise’ against the people opposing the L&J government, (c) narratives contesting Poland’s relations with EU institutions at Brussels, and (d) tension-perpetuating discourse targeting Russia and Germany – before and after Russia’s invasion on the independent state of Ukraine. Drawing on research models from contemporary critical discourse studies and critical-cognitive pragmatics, students will learn that the crisis, conflict and threat elements in these discourses produce public coercion patterns which contribute significantly to the strong leadership and continuing popularity of the L&J party. Throughout the course, the analysis of the Polish political discourse is intertwined with samples of right-wing discourses in other European countries (Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Austria, Italy, the UK), demonstrating analogies with regard to the major discursive themes (European integration, multiculturalism, immigration, welfare state), actors, and rhetorical strategies used (othering, enemy-construction, fear appeals). Altogether, the seminar offers a unique and authoritative panorama of the Polish state-political discourse, coupled with a thought-provoking picture of ties and mutual dependencies among radical and populist right-wing discourse trends colonizing the 21st century Europe.
dr hab. prof. UŁ Kamila Ciepiela, Communication in and across contexts
This BA seminar offers students a comprehensive, theoretical, and practical guide to communication theory. First it defines the various perspectives on communication theory—the social scientific, interpretive, and critical approaches—and then takes on the theories themselves, with topics including interpersonal communication, organizational communication, intercultural communication, and other key concepts. Each theory is described and applied giving students an insider’s glimpse of the way that communication theory can be written about and applied in various real life contexts (f2f, school, workplace, institutions, media, politics). Students are provided with relevant guidance and help at any moment of designing and drafting their diploma projects, which should lead to their successful completion.
dr Aleksandra Majdzińska-Koczorowicz, Linguistic and bimodal forms of expression
In this seminar students will have the opportunity to investigate various verbal and verbo-visual forms of expression in such areas as advertisements, newspaper articles, political speeches, comics, or Internet memes in order to discuss their communicative effectiveness. The course aims at offering an insight into various concepts concerning written discourse and bimodal forms of expression: distribution of information, 'figurative language' (metaphor, metonymy, personification, etc.), framing, construal, distribution of attention (e.g. perspective, figure and ground distinction), and chosen basic notions from the field of visual communication. A focus will also be placed on persuasive language, including presenting arguments, techniques of manipulation/propaganda, personalising strategies, etc. The course will also highlight the variant nature of language and the possibility of alternate ways of expression.
dr hab. prof. UŁ Iwona Witczak-Plisiecka / dr Anna Gralińska-Brawata, Analysing how people do things with words in different varieties of English
The aim of the seminar is to acquaint students with a variety of factors influencing the use of English and ways of investigating the functions of language and variability in speech from the sociolinguistic point of view. The seminar aims at inspiring and preparing students for conducting a research project as part of their B.A. thesis.
The course will focus on important issues concerning various sources of variability in language use including a range of sociolinguistic variables (e.g. age, gender, ethnicity, social status, identity, speaking styles) and language (including its phonetic features, e.g. dialect and accent differences) in different contexts of use (e.g. professional or private interaction, advertising, mediated contexts, language of the classroom). These will be based on close analyses of selected audio-visual materials or texts.
dr hab. prof. UŁ Przemysław Krakowian, Modern orientations in ESL
While learner interest and involvement are crucial to achieving success in ELF/ESL, schools are having a hard time competing with the appeals of what life has to offer outside school. This seminar is aimed at encouraging BA projects that explore issues in ELT that offer practical and technical solutions to improve the attractiveness and appeal of classroom learning. Selected topics include the following: Kahoot, Socrative and visualization technology, Netflix, YouTube and other streaming services, Tik-Tok, podcasts and vlogs, authentic materials, WebQuests, language games, role-playing and simulations, popular technology in language learning, new technologies and the Internet in teaching, mobile learning, distance learning, online learning environments and authoring tools, online assessment and computerized/electronic portfolia in skill development and language assessment.
1. prof. dr hab. Andrzej Wicher, Proseminar on English Literature
The course prepares the students for a literary MA seminar, and for writing their MA theses. It deals also with interpretation of literary texts, particularly the texts belonging to medieval and Renaissance literature, and modern fantasy. Additionally, it concerns selected theoretical problems of fantastic literature.
2. dr hab. prof. UŁ Katarzyna Ostalska, Immersive world-building: more-than-human literary narratives (animals, plants, AI) in textual and digital multiverses
The seminar aims to study narratives that were both traditionally printed and “digital born,” multimedial, literary works, created to be experienced specifically in the online milieu. Consequently, the course offers a systematic approach to understanding the differences between print and digital narratives, highlighting the distinctive characteristics of the latter which emerge in the web environment. The methodological approach applied to such analyses goes beyond a human-centred perspective (anthropocentric), focusing on AI (artificial intelligence), animals, plants, machines and the way how they all co-create alternative realities. The seminar is going to explore the “possible worlds theory” in relation to the speculative genre and digital literature. The research material involves speculative literature (SF), digital writing, games and videos. When studying how immersive worlds are brought into being, the seminar offers an analytical perspective that enhances a broader understanding of what literary works are, expanding in such a way the interpretative research areas.
3. dr hab. prof. UŁ Tomasz Dobrogoszcz, Aliens, Crakers and Machines: corporate capitalism and its underdogs
We are currently living in a new geological epoch which has the “potential to transform Earth rapidly and irreversibly into a state unknown in human experience”. Since in several recent decades the main influence on the planet has been exerted through human-initiated actions, scientists have called this period the Anthropocene. Yet most of the uncontrollable destructive effects that our civilisation has produced should be linked with capitalism. In today’s world corporate capitalism is the dominant socioeconomic system, and it affects all human and non-human lives of the planet. The neoliberal turn has only exacerbated the gulf between the elites who control the means of production and the exploitable/expendable masses. The seminar will look at some novels and films which portray the capitalist oppression of the unprivileged others, represented, directly or symbolically, as aliens/animals (M. Faber’s Under the Skin, N. Blomkamp’s District 9), organisms created through biotechnologies (K. Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go, D. Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas, M. Atwood’s Oryx and Crake) and machines/cyborgs (J. Winterson’s The Stone Gods, the Wachowskis’ The Matrix). We will examine them in the theoretical contexts provided by ecocritical and posthumanist philosophical positions that suggest going beyond the anthropocentric perspective.
4. dr hab. prof. UŁ Alicja Piechucka, Film and Feminism: The Condition of Women in American Cinema
The aim of the proseminar is to examine selected examples of American films in terms of how they present the situation of women in the 20th and early 21st centuries. Chronologically speaking, the history of cinema coincides with that of the feminist movement, since both flourished in the 20th century. Nevertheless, American cinema – and cinema in general – is often accused of stereotyping, marginalizing and misrepresenting women and adopting the perspective of heterosexual men, who constitute the overwhelming majority of film directors. The proseminar is intended as an exploration of American films which do not exemplify such tendencies, for example Sofia Coppola’s The Virgin Suicides or Ridley Scott’s Thelma and Louise. The focus will be on cinematographic works which feature multidimensional female characters, depict women as fully fledged human beings and tell the viewer something about the condition of women and the changes it has undergone in the last 100 years.
5. prof. dr hab. Łukasz Bogucki, Non-literary Translation, Concepts, Practices, Challenges
This course deals with all things translation, except for the translation of literature. Topics covered include:
- audiovisual translation and media accessibility
- simultaneous and consecutive interpreting
- game localisation
- machine translation
- legal, medical and technical translation
- sworn / certified translation
- translation tools
- translation and interpreting competence
- cultural untranslatability in non-literary texts
- translating humour
As translation typically involves two languages, sufficient knowledge of both English and Polish is required.
6. dr hab. prof. UŁ Martin Hinton, Understanding Modern Communication
The aim of this course is to introduce students to aspects of linguistic theory and how they can be applied in the analysis and understanding of contemporary communication. Over the semester, we look at a range of modern communication forms, including advertisements, Tweets, and memes, as well as political speeches and newspaper columns. We discuss and describe them in the light of pragmatic, rhetorical, and cognitive approaches to meaning, always seeking to test the adequacy of established theory to the task of understanding modern, multi-modal and inter-textual communication. The course encourages a critical approach to these theories and is designed to prepare students for conducting research into a wide range of discourse types during their masters level studies.
7. Prof. dr hab. Piotr Cap, From the ‘oppressive leftists’ to ‘true patriots’: Populist rhetoric of conflict in the contemporary Polish and European discourse
This proseminar explores linguistic patterns of conflict, crisis and threat generation in state-political discourse of post-2015 Poland, positioning the main strategies in line with the populist rhetorical trends dominating right-wing radical and exclusionary discourses in contemporary Europe. It demonstrates that crisis construction, conflict generation and threat management have been at the heart of Polish state-level policies since the Law & Justice (PiS) party came to power in October 2015. The L&J’s threat-based policies are enacted in multiple public discourses focusing on home as well as international issues. The present seminar places its lens on (a) parliamentary discourse directed at parliamentary opposition leaders, (b) presidential and party ‘rhetoric of despise’ against the people opposing the L&J government, (c) narratives contesting Poland’s relations with EU institutions at Brussels, and (d) tension-perpetuating discourse targeting Russia and Germany – before and after Russia’s invasion on the independent state of Ukraine. Drawing on research models from contemporary critical discourse studies and critical-cognitive pragmatics, students will learn that the crisis, conflict and threat elements in these discourses produce public coercion patterns which contribute significantly to the strong leadership and continuing popularity of the L&J party. Throughout the course, the analysis of the Polish political discourse is intertwined with samples of right-wing discourses in other European countries (Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Austria, Italy, the UK), demonstrating analogies with regard to the major discursive themes (European integration, multiculturalism, immigration, welfare state), actors, and rhetorical strategies used (othering, enemy-construction, fear appeals). Altogether, the course offers a unique and authoritative panorama of the Polish state-political discourse, coupled with a thought-provoking picture of ties and mutual dependencies among radical and populist right-wing discourse trends colonizing the 21st century Europe.
8. dr Anna Jarosz, English Pronunciation: Theory, Practice and Research
In this course students will fall back on their knowledge of English phonetics and phonology in order to explore the crucial role of pronunciation in intelligible spoken communication. The course will start with a brief overview of key concepts (intelligibility, comprehensibility, nativeness, accentedness) in pronunciation research, theoretical perspectives on L2 phonetic acquisition as well as traditional vs modern approaches to pronunciation learning/teaching. Then, we will analyse the most important variables (both learner- dependent and independent) affecting success in the pronunciation learning process and the cutting-edge research findings regarding pronunciation instruction. We will also discuss the difficulties related to pronunciation assessment, technology use in pronunciation instruction, social aspects of accentedness and the ethics of L2 accent reduction.
9. dr hab. prof. UŁ Iwona Witczak-Plisiecka, Doing things with words in social contexts
The seminar focuses on language as a type of action in professional and other social contexts. The students will get familiar with a number of socio-pragmatic variables and research methods that can be used in linguistics projects. Accepting that speech is a type of action we are naturally interested in the varied interactions between language and society, therefore the course will invite discussions issues including the relationship between linguistic variation and social factors such as (national, ethnic or gender) identity, class and power, code choices in bi-dialectal or bilingual communities (e.g. Spanglish), attitudes towards language and culture. We will also explore selected aspects of communication in professional contexts (e.g. legal, medical or journalistic varieties) and explore implications with regard to how sociolinguistic issues can be used in teaching English as a foreign language. Theoretical issues will be illustrated with sample research tasks. The course is relevant for students interested in the nature of meaning in natural language, which includes face-to-face interaction, but also interaction found in fiction, literature, multimodal contexts, computer-mediated communication, and professional settings and the ones whose BA projects involved speech action in a phonetic perspective.