AbstractsLanguage, Literature & Linguistics

Every time we open our mouths to speak we are performing an aspect of our identity in language. How we perform our selves is influenced by the social expectations and pressures around us, as well as our relationship to our auditors in the linguistic market. My thesis examines these pressures through William Shakespeare's Othello, looking at how Othello's identity is negotiated in his dynamic language and how the Venetian society sees him as an other by analyzing the density of Latinate words in various characters' monologues. With key theorists Piene Bourdieu, Edward Said, and Irving Goffman, as well as drawing on my own experiences as a foreigner in .. Japan, I address issues sunounding language performance especially when using a foreign language. Ultimately my thesis seeks to address the question: how ought we treat foreigners based on their language? Advisors/Committee Members: Bruhn, Mark.