For Lack Of A Better Word? Interrogating the Literal

It’s often argued (in the university, politics, public life, and elsewhere) that clarity and precision in language are necessary for effective communication. Recent trends in linguistics, however, suggest that metaphor is a natural outgrowth of the way human cognition is organized - indeed, that our experience of the world is often rooted in metaphor. But these arguments come with certain assumptions: why is the literal taken as default, and the non-literal as somehow aberrant? Is this truly a natural consequence of human cognition and semiotics? And to what degree is it influenced by the material and social conditions under which linguistics has developed as a academic discipline?

On this course we will try to interrogate this notion of ‘the literal’. Rather taking a linear or chronological route, we will weave between angles - beginning with ‘modern’ academic and applied linguistics, moving through esoteric and spiritual approaches to language, and into considering the role of the non-verbal in communication. The final session will be dedicated to reflection, and for participants to present their thoughts on metaphor, the literal, and everything - if anything - in between.