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.

• 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 delivered through a mix of large group and small group sessions, including, where relevant, asynchronous materials such as lecture recordings. Full details on the delivery mode of this module will be available on Learning Central at the start of the academic year – and may be, in part, determined by Welsh Government and Public Health Wales guidance.

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.

The assessment(s) for this module will be published in due course.

Indicative Syllabus:

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
• Structure and language of memes
• Counterculture and subversion