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Speech Acts

When you'll study it
Semester 2
CATS points
15
ECTS points
7.5
Level
Level 5
Module lead
Sarah Hayden
Academic year
2024-25

Module overview

How do writers activate and amplify the sonic properties of language? Why do artists use vocal performance of text in video art? How can text ‘perform’ on the page (or onscreen), and what does it mean for language to be performative? What does writing for performance require? How can audiences ‘read’ what is spoken, and how do they hear what is written? In this module, you will read a range of literary and critical material which explores the relation between writing, speaking and sounding. You will consider how contemporary artists deploy voiced text to incite political change and learn how 20th-century manifestos and 21st-century spells transform words into actions. You will analyse poetic texts as sonic artefacts and have the opportunity to write and perform innovative texts of your own. Over the course of the module, you will investigate what happens when language is lifted off the page.

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