This course aims to stimulate students’ thinking around the complex notion of ‘identity’, challenging classic sociolinguistic and sociological approaches and introducing poststructuralist approaches. The language of individuals and/or institutions will be analysed in depth, with reference to critical theories of society, ideology and discourse. The course also aims to raise awareness of how language is used to create and maintain power through narratives of identity. Case studies will be presented, with a view to deconstructionist analysis on the role of language in producing and reproducing ostensibly stable ‘identities’ along binary lines such as masculine/feminine, Western/Asian and straight/queer. The course also investigates how humans perform other types of social difference and belonging such as ethnicity and social class.