TThis course offers an introduction to the study of the relationship between language, literacy, society and the individual. In this course, language is perceived as a social practice, focusing on different aspects of its role in social life. Furthermore, this course encourages its students to think and recast language as a range of material practices that are within and yet distinct from both linguistics and literature, thus identifying ways in which different literacies produce the spaces, bodies and species necessary for developing further thought in the humanities adequate to the challenges of the contemporary world. Therefore, this course will engage with literature, the arts and theory in relation to language and literacy, in the key of issues that are relevant, urgent and timely for the different problematics embedded in the 21 st century. Topics reviewed include social, cultural and political theory, cultural materialism, media, environmental humanities, gender theory and posthuman studies.