Dr. Victor Alabi, Language and Film Discourse in Africa

Everyday, we speak and interact with other people, but often without giving much thought to the small details—hand gestures, tonal inflections, word choice, body positioning, and more—that give deeper meanings to our interpersonal communication. Dr. Victor Alabi’s course LANG 0760: Language and Film Discourse in Africa, gives insight into those crucial interactions, specifically in the context of Africa and African film.

The course will use films from Africa as cultural data for analysis. Professor Alabi believes that verbal and nonverbal interactions between characters in scenes from the selected films will provide insight into African culture (Nigerian culture in particular), and that the course will teach students to perform critical analysis of and produce written analysis about the cultural data in the films. The course requires no prior knowledge of African languages, but will provide an opportunity for students to learn about African cultures and languages, including Yoruba, Swahili, Mooré, Chichewa, and more. Taking this course will allow students to learn deeply about a language and culture without having to study it formally, so it’s a good fit for spring semester. (And interested students could then take Yoruba I next fall.)

The structure of the course centers a new type of speech interaction each week: for example, greetings, apologies, requests, curse words, or proverbs. Not only will students learn to classify and identify types of speech acts and their components, but they will learn to analyze and write about these interactions in the context of the cultures in Africa where they originated. Professor Alabi aims to teach students how languages are more than just their written form, and to consider how written forms like screenplays and scripts might more authentically represent the spoken, gestured form of a language.

By the end of the course, students should expect to be able to analyze linguistic and cultural data and write skillfully about it. The course is not capped and Professor Alabi is excited to welcome interested students. MCM or linguistics concentrators might find the course to be a refreshing angle on language and film, and any student can expect a unique, immersive, and close-knit course covering film, language, and African culture and speech. Additionally, the course is WRIT, for those looking to fulfill their requirement. The course is held Monday and Wednesday from 3 PM to 4:20 PM in the Sci-Li classroom 618. Feel free to email Professor Alabi (victor_alabi@brown.edu) with any questions!