Summer 2007
Thursday 6-8:40 PM
CAT Bldg. 77
Professor Rakhmiel Peltz
331 Hagerty Library
215-895-1499; rp27@drexel.edu
Office hours: Thurs. 10-12 AM, and by appointment
Materials can be left for Dr. Peltz in the Judaic Studies Office, 331 Hagerty Library, or in the mailbox of Judaic Studies in Hagerty Library, by addressing it to him at the Judaic Studies Office, and instructing a librarian at the circulation desk to put it in his mailbox.
Course Description:
The course will explore a variety of the ways that language and communication have been studied in disparate societies the world over, with an emphasis on the ethnography of speaking. Topics include story- and joke-telling, everyday greetings, how we present ourselves, different roles for men and womenÕs communication, the language of narratives and religious ritual, and communicative events and competence. Case studies in the literature will be analyzed. Theoretical and methodological issues will be discussed in detail.
Course Requirements:
Attendance and participation at all class meetings. Each student is required to introduce the class discussion of course readings, assigned in advance. A written report on The Restaurant Fieldwork project is due Wednesday, July 12. Two written examinations on the lectures, readings, films, and discussions to date will take place Wednesday, July 26 and during finals week.
A term paper, due at the time of the second exam during finals week, will discuss the book, Venus on Wheels, in terms of the issues and methods of the ethnography of communication that we have discussed during the course. Undergraduates are required to write a 10-page paper; graduate students must write a 15-page paper. This essay should reflect the development of your thoughts during this quarter, your new understanding of what communication is, and your critique of the ethnographic method. You must focus on the important ways this study teaches us about communication. Undergraduates should not limit themselves to a book report, but must include an analysis and comparison with relevant case studies we have analyzed in class. Graduate students must, in addition, analyze at least three of the references from the research literature on a topic that the author Frank introduces in her notes to the book.
Grades will be calculated on the following basis:
Attendance, participation and oral report (20%)
Restaurant report (15%)
Examination I (15%)
Examination II (15%)
Term Paper (35%)
Books:
Bauman, Richard, and Joel Sherzer, eds., Explorations in the Ethnography of Speaking, 2nd edition, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989.
Duranti, Alessandro, ed., Linguistic Anthropology: A Reader, Malden, MA.: Blackwell Publishers, 2001.
Frank, Gelya. Venus on Wheels, Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000.
The above required texts are available for purchase at the Pennsylvania Book Center, 34th and Sansom Street, 215-222-7600.
Films:
American Tongues (56 mins.)
Cross Cultural Communication in Diverse Settings (60 mins.)
Plagiarism: Plagiarism, also known as academic cheating or theft, includes submitting someone elseÕs work as your own or not appropriately acknowledging (through correct reference citation) material you have gotten from other writers. Plagiarism also includes using without attribution material written or created by others from the World Wide Web. Review guidelines in the Drexel Student Handbook or speak to the instructor. Plagiarism is a serious ethical offense that can result in a failing grade for the paper and/or the course and will result in a letter to the University Judicial Board.
Syllabus:
Week 1. Thursday, June 28.
First class. Review the scope of the course and requirements. Introduction of the instructor and the students. Ethnography, the approach of cultural anthropology. Ethnography of communication. How has language been studied? History versus study in the present, the individual versus the population, levels of analysis, langue vs. parole, competence vs. performance. Handout and discuss the restaurant assignment.
Week 2. Thursday, July 5.
Sociolinguistics, the ethnography of speaking, the sociology of language. Doing participant-observation; the ethnographic interview; relevant historical research; ethical issues; insider vs. outsider; the self-reflexive investigator. Discussion of literature background to the restaurant assignment.
Readings: Bailey, p.119 in Duranti; Theoretical and methodological questions: Duranti: Irvine, p.189; Duranti, p.208; Goodwin and Goodwin, p.239.
Observation of greetings to be shared orally.
Week 3. Thursday, July 12.
Restaurant report due. Discussion of the results of the restaurant project.
Community traditions and resources; language and context I: B&S: Sankoff, p.18; Jackson, p.50; Fox, p.65; Philips, p.92.
Week 4. Thursday, July 19.
Preparing for the term paper. Individual 30-minute conferences to be scheduled with Prof. Peltz. No class meeting this week.
First reading of Gelya FrankÕs book Venus on Wheels (text itself, without notes, is 169 pages).
Week 5. Thursday, July 26.
Examination I.
Week 6. Thursday, August 2.
Socialization, community and classroom: Duranti: Ochs and Schieffelin, p.263; Philips, p.302; Heath, p.318.
Language and context II; speech acts, events, and situations I: B&S: Reisman, p.110; Bauman, p.144; Irvine, p.167; Salmond, p.192.
Week 7. Thursday, August 9.
Speech acts, events, and situations II: B&S: Sherzer, p.263; Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, p.283.
Narrative, performance, identity I: B&S: Darnell, p.315; Sacks, p.337; Gossen, p.389.
Week 8. Thursday, August 16.
Narrative, Performance, Identity II: Duranti: Baquedano-Lopez, p.343; Ochs and Taylor, p.431.
Discourse in the community: Duranti: Morgan, p.74; Spitulnik, p.95.
Week 9. Thursday, August 23.
Viewing of two films as data for analysis during the course, one on the diversity of the ways people speak and communicate in the USA (ÒAmerican TonguesÓ) and the second on the difficulties the world over that ensue when members of different ethnic groups attempt to communicate with each other (ÒCross Cultural Communication in Diverse SettingsÓ).
Week 10. Thursday, August 30.
Last class.
Discourse and difference in the community: power, gender, and race: B&S: Keenan 125; Duranti: Kroskrity, p. 402; Gal, p. 420; Hill, p.450.
Discussion of Venus on Wheels as a study of the communication of identity and of the interrelationship of ethnographer and subject.
The ethnography of communication: problems of theory and method, a discussion.
Finals Week.
Examination II.
Term paper due.