Power in Language, Culture, Literature and Education

In one of the contributions to this edited volume an interviewee argues that “English is power”. For researchers in the field of English Studies this raises the questions of where the power of English resides and which types and practices of power are implied in the uses of English. Linguists, scholars of literature and culture, and language educators address aspects of these questions in a wide range of contributions. The book shows that the power of English can oscillate between empowerment and subjection, on the one hand enabling humans to develop manifold capabilities and on the other constraining their scope of action and reflection. In this edited volume, a case is made for self-critical English Studies to be dialogic, empowering and power-critical in approach.

Werner Delanoy & Marta Degani
Power in Language, Culture, Literature and Education: Perspectives of English Studies

Part 1: Perspectives from English Linguistics

Alexander Onysko
Power to the Englishes? – Reflections on the Notion of Equality in World Englishes

Christopher Blake Shedd
Martin Luther King as a Wielder of Power. A Linguistic Analysis of Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community?

Marta Degani
About Attributions of Power and Political Control: Crititical Reflections on Populism and its Challenges from Linguistic Perspectives

Vesna Lazović
‘Wherever You Go, Your Bank Travels with You’: Personification as a Powerful Strategy in British and Serbian Online Bank Advertisements

Nikola Dobrić & Günther Sigott
The Use of Error Profiles in Applied Linguistics – Empowering Language Instruction by Cataloguing Rating-negative Performance at the English Department, University of Klagenfurt, Austria

Eva-Maria Graf, Frédérick Dionne & Melanie Fleischhacker
The Transformational Power of Questioning Practices in Coaching – Insights from Linguistic and Interdisciplinary Research

Part 2: Perspectives from Anglophone Literatures and Cultures

Alexa Weik von Mossner
The Power of Love: Reading The Silver Linings Playbook as Romantic Neuronovel

Marijana Mikić
Ecosocial Harm, Grief, and Communal Empowerment in Sherri L. Smith’s Orleans

Carina Rasse
Feeling for Others: Environmental Justice, Emotion, and Moral Imagination in Lina Hogan’s Solar Storms

Iris van der Horst
“I Am Husband Now in Master Frankford’s Place”: Abuse of Power in the Main Plot of Thomas Heywood’s A Woman Killed with Kindness

Matthias Klestil
Unveiling Subjection, Practicing Subjectivation: Race, Power, and Strategies of Rewriting the Self in Charles W. Chesnutt’s The Marrow of Tradition

Ursula Posratschnig
The Story of Meat – Challenging Carnist Ideology, Science Denial, and the Erasure of Animal Cruelty, Ecocide and Social Injustice

Armin Lippitz, René Reinhold Schallegger & Felix Schniz
Disempowering the Controller – Videogames and the Metanarrative of Agency

Part 3: Perspectives from English Language Education

Werner Delanoy
The Power of Literature (Teaching): Experiencing Warsan Shire’s Home

Anita Millonig
Post-inclusive Education, Diversity and Multilinguality in ELT

Ursula Posratschnig & Günther Sigott
Teaching Academic Writing to Undergraduate Students of English in Klagenfurt: From the Word to the World

Carmen M. Amerstorfer & Clara Kuncic
The Power Within: The Motivation, Interest, and Engagement of Students in Problem-based Preservice English Teacher Education

Irena Vodopija-Krstanović
Understanding EMI Teacher Empowerment: What Does it Mean and How Can it Be Enhanced?

Contributors

Marta Degani was appointed Associate Professor in English Linguistics at the University of Verona, Italy, in 2014 and currently also holds a position as Senior Scientist of English Linguistics at the University of Klagenfurt, Austria. Her current research focuses on the analysis of political discourse in the frameworks of cognitive semantics and critical discourse analysis, and the study of varieties of English and language contact in the context of Aotearoa New Zealand.

Werner Delanoy is professor of English language education in the English Department at the University of Klagenfurt. His main areas of research are inter- and transcultural learning perspectives, cosmopolitanism and global citizenship education, English language education in a globalized modernity and contemporary British culture and literature.