Undergraduate Program Status
Elective | 4th year |
The present course aims to explore the somewhat problematic relationship between language(s) and the intangible cultural heritage (IHC) as defined in official UNESCO documents such as the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage (Paris, 2003) and the Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity (Paris, 2001). The course will focus particularly on the relationship between language and identity, as well as the multiple ways in which the two interact with the notion of cultural heritage. As part of a historical survey of the evolution of cultural heritage as a theoretical concept, we will discuss first the reasons and processes that ultimately led to the exclusion of language per se from the domains defined and protected as part of ICH as well as the scope and limitations of UNESCO's policy on language, linguistic rights, and endangered languages. This discussion will be followed by an introduction to basic concepts needed in order to understand how language can function or be claimed as an essential component of individuals' idenity. To do so, the course will introduce you to concepts such as 'speech communities,' 'linguistic varieties,' 'linguistic identities,' 'language endangerment/loss,' and 'language policy.' Then we will explore the restricted possibilities for protecting languages, endangered or not, as part of ICH provided by the inclusion of language qua vehicle for ICH among the domains that make the object of the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage. In connection to this we will focus on the ways in which various communities, ranging from local to transnational, have used and sometimes abused the possibilities offered by the Convention to safeguard and promote their own linguistic varieties by formulating specific cultural policies and submitting applications for the inclusion of various elements of ICH to one of the lists maintained under the Convention. By means of a critical discussion of selected examples of successful applications and of several items of ICH included on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage and on the List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding, we will try to understand how various agents have used the framework of the convention and instrumentalized language, especially its endangered varieties, in order to promote specific interests ranging from nationalist agendas to various types of identity politics. The course will also address more specific issues, such as language policy within the legal and institutional framework created by the UNESCO documents and linguistic rights as human rights and as an expression of cultural diversity. In order to achieve these objectives, the course is structured in three parts. The first will deal with the legal and institutional framework created by UNESCO, which provide the conceptual basis (terminology, definitions of domains, selection criteria and guidelines) relevant to a discussion of both (endangered) languages and the ICH. The second part will explore the various sociolinguistic concepts needed to define the relation between language and identity. In this section of the course the interplay between IHC safeguarding policies and various states' language policies will be addressed by looking at the practical consequences (in legal and sociolinguistic terms) generated by the identification of language as a constitutive, yet not autonomous part of IHC. Here several issues will be addressed such as the influence of national(ist) ideologies which underpin state cultural and heritage protection policies on the identification and preservation of linguistic components of IHC, the rapport between official and unofficial/minority/regional/less used languages in the process of preservation, the topic of language preservation and language revival. The third part of the course will offer concrete discussions of individual cases of items of IHC included on the official UNESCO lists in light of the practical linguistic problems they raise. These will include but will not be limited to, the interplay between language and dialect, conferring protected status to languages no longer spoken by any community, shaping of ethnic or regional identities through language.
- The ability to exercise critical thinking, i.e., to develop a critical approach to language and IHC-related issues. Assessed regularly through interactive discussion in class and short critical presentations of recommended literature.
- The ability to select, synthesize, and disseminate academic knowledge relevant to a wider audience through elaborating a proposal for inclusion of one IHC item on the UNESCO lists, of which language should be an important element. Assessed through the end-of-term written assessment.
- Multicultural understanding as manifested in the awareness of and respect for points of view deriving from other national, social, or cultural backgrounds. Assessed regularly through discussions in class of passages from the readings that offer relevant topics.
- Acquiring a global intellectual ethos by learning to refer local/regional issues to larger structures with a full awareness of the similarities and differences as well as the limitations involved in this process.