Module manager: Kate Spowage
Email: k.s.spowage@leeds.ac.uk
Taught: Semester 2 (Jan to Jun) View Timetable
Year running 2025/26
This module is not approved as an Elective
“Language was always the companion of Empire” – so wrote Antonio de Nebrija in 1492, at the dawn of the colonial era. In this module, students will explore the impacts of empire on language. Using literature, film, and case studies, we will think about the way colonialism shaped linguistic theory, language policies/ecologies, and the politics of language. We will see that language offers a critical vantage point for confronting questions of oppression, exploitation, resistance, and revolution.
This module aims to sensitise students to questions around language that have been essential to operations of colonial power and postcolonial reckonings with the legacies of empire. It will introduce them to major practical and theoretical currents associated with colonial, postcolonial, and decolonial approaches to language. Students will develop their understanding of the close connection between language and colonial control, anticolonial resistance, and postcolonial cultural and material politics. They will also develop their awareness of how writers and filmmakers grapple with this histories, and how cultural products can help us to investigate linguistic issues.
At heart, this module aims to challenge students to develop a critical understanding of how empire has shaped linguistic life.
On successful completion of the module, students will be able to:
1. Demonstrate an advanced knowledge of the impact of empire on linguistic theories, ecologies, and practices.
2. Critically evaluate the role of culture and cultural products in (post)colonial struggles.
3. Connect bodies of scholarship from linguistics, literature, and cultural theory for an interdisciplinary appreciation of language after Empire.
Skills Learning Outcomes
On successful completion of the module, students will be able to:
4. Think critically and creatively, drawing on independent thought and research to understand and evaluate problems.
5. Demonstrate the ability and confidence to critique theories and ideas.
6. Engage with complex debates with care and nuance.
Details of the syllabus will be provided on the Minerva organisation (or equivalent) for the module
| Delivery type | Number | Length hours | Student hours |
|---|---|---|---|
| Practical | 1 | 1 | |
| Practical | 1 | 2 | 3 |
| Seminar | 10 | 2 | 20 |
| Independent online learning hours | 3 | ||
| Private study hours | 274 | ||
| Total Contact hours | 23 | ||
| Total hours (100hr per 10 credits) | 300 | ||
Students will receive formative feedback throughout the module, including through verbal interactions in seminars and through office hour appointments. They will also be tasked to engage in collaborative formative work producing a ‘class reading list’, which will allow them to gain formative feedback from the module leader and peers. In addition, the module leader will produce weekly ‘Big Ideas Videos’ (no more than 20 minutes long) which provide formative feedback to the whole cohort, and are accessed asynchronously via Minerva. These are accounted for as ‘Independent Online Learning’ above.
| Assessment type | Notes | % of formal assessment |
|---|---|---|
| Presentation | Presentation 15-minutes, with slides, in small groups (2-3) | 40 |
| Coursework | Essay | 60 |
| Total percentage (Assessment Coursework) | 100 | |
Should a student need to resit the presentation, they can do so as a 10-minute solo presentation on the same question.
The reading list is available from the Library website
Last updated: 30/04/2025
Errors, omissions, failed links etc should be notified to the Catalogue Team