Irina Sandomirskaja (Södertörns högskola): Words, Things, and Language Science: Three Episodes in the Production of Power

Abstract

In my lecture, I will analyze three cases to illustrate the production and distribution of power in matters related to language, identity, and subjectivity. One story is about censorship and power in political repression; another is about language politics and manipulations of identity in nation and cultural construction; and the third one is about aphasia, negativity in language, and the relationship between linguistic norm and the speaking subject. In all three cases, matters of power are closely linked with the condition of knowledge, the interests of the science of language and communication. In the end, I hope to be able to outline a three-dimensional diagram of relationship between words, things, and knowledge: from the vantage points of the political regime, collective identity, and normativity, and point out the necessity of a critical approach to language and especially to linguistic knowledge as socially and politically constructed discourses.
 

Föreläsningen är en del av Humanistiska fakultetens forskarskola inom temat ”Språk och makt” som startar november 2017 och som anordnas av Institutionen för slaviska och baltiska språk, finska, nederländska och tyska i samarbete med Institutionen för svenska och flerspråkighet samt Romanska och klassiska institutionen. Föreläsningen är på engelska.

Alla intresserade är hjärtligt välkomna!