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Digital code as text. Can notions of text that were developed without electronic texts in mind be applied to digital code, and how does literature come into play here? My talk is based on the general (yet disputable) assumption that the theoretical debate of literature in digital networks has shifted, just as the poetic practices it is shaped after, from perceiving computer technology solely as an extension of conventional textuality (as manifest in such notions as 'hypertext', 'hyperfiction', 'hyper-/ multimedia') towards paying attention to the very codedness of digital systems themselves. Several phenomena may serve as empirical evidence: - The early focus of conceptualist Net.art on the aesthetics and politics of code; - in turn, the impact of Net.art aesthetics on experimental literature / poetry in the Internet; - the close affinity of Net.art with political activism in the Internet; - which itself increasingly affiliates itself with an older, technical 'hacker' culture (of Chaos Computer Club, 2600, etc.); - the strong interest for (a) Free/Open Source Software and (b) network protocol standardization in all these camps; - the fact that hacker aesthetics, Net.art aesthetics, code aesthetics and network protocol aesthetics have a tremendous impact on contemporary writing in the Internet. (See the work of mez, Alan Sondheim, Talan Memmott, Ted Warnell and others.) I wll discuss how "Codeworks" (Alan Sondheim) fit notions of text that were crafted without digital code (and most importantly: machine-executable digital code) in mind and vice versa. Is it a coincidence for example that, reflecting the low-level codes of the Internet aesthetically, codeworks ended up resembling concrete poetry? And, apart from aesthetic resemblances, how do computer programs relate to literature? Is that what is currently being discussed as "Software Art" a literary genre? Since many of these positions remain debatable, I would like to put up questions in my presentation rather than give answers.

This chapter uses reflection on the author's involvement in the movement known as 'language through literature' or 'pedagogical stylistics' as a way into describing how the field emerged, its relations with different theoretical positions in English Language Teaching (ELT), and its main achievements as regards syllabus reform and methodological innovation. Arguments now made in favour of incorporating the study of literary texts into second-language (L2) English programmes are assessed, as well as some arguments commonly made against. The chapter concludes by identifying present and future challenges, ranging from specifics of course design and pedagogy through to a need to respond to the political imperative of vocational relevance in nearly all fields of education. Each kind of issue, the chapter argues, must be a concern for teachers and others who believe that both a cultural and a professional dimension in English language education are essential, if linguistics is to be 'applied' in socially relevant ways.

This study starts from the assumption that intercultural training with literary texts should have a clearly defined position in foreign language teaching and learning, and that this could facilitate the deconstruction of orientalist perspectives in contemporary political and media discourse. However, the marginalisation of intercultural objectives, methodology and methods in curricula, teacher training and course books that themselves reveal orientalist features demonstrate a long-lasting practical negligence in an area that has been at the forefront of foreign language research in the last two decades. In the short and medium term, this enormous gap between theory and practice could partially be addressed by replacing inadequate sections in course books with literary work, using texts such as The Persian Dinner that have been successfully brought into a foreign language environment at Higher Education level in Cambridge. However, intercultural training in other subject areas than foreign languages will have to support this temporary solution until substantially revised curricula and teacher training programmes start guiding authors and publishers to develop more adequate teaching and learning material.

Battle descriptions as literary text: an introduction -- Year Names as Source for Military Campaigns in the Third Millennium BC -- Much Ado about Nothing? Battle Descriptions in Ugaritic Texts -- Victor without Victory? The Lack of Battle Descriptions in the Achaeamenid Empire -- Battle Descriptions in the Hebrew Bible: An Overview with Special Attention to the Book of Joshua.-Plataea, 479 BC -- "Eine Schlacht wie keine andere" – alles nur Literatur, oder was? Agesilaos II., Xenophon und der "Sieg" Spartas in der Schlacht bei Koroneia (14. August, 394 v. Chr.), der vielleicht eher doch eine Niederlage war! -- Parody as a Sign of Generic Consciousness: Battle Descriptions in the Pseudo-Homeric Batrachomyomachia -- The Battle of Gaugamela. A Case Study and Some General Methodological Considerations -- Die "Thermopylenschlacht 2.0" am Persischen Tor (330 v. Chr.) -- Battle Descriptions in Livy's Ab Urbe Condita -- Conversus ad pacem … (Flor. 2.34.65 = 4.12.65) – Battle Descriptions in Florus Reconsidered -- The Impact of Violence as Heroization Technique in Basini's Hesperis, Naldi's Volaterrais and Filelfo's Sphortias -- A Battle of Emperors? Contemporary Poetic and Prose Descriptions of Austerlitz (1805) -- The Impossibility of Deliberate Action in Tolstoy's Descriptions of Battle in War and Peace -- Historical Distance and Literary Re-Presentation. Ancient Battles in German Classical Studies.

This thesis examines the evolution of personal pronouns from the tenth to the fourteenth centuries, with a particular focus upon the southern literary dialects of that era. The baseline text for this analysis is the Anglo-Saxon poem The Dream of the Rood, although Bright's paradigm of Anglo-Saxon pronouns is also employed. The Owl and the Nightingale (circa 1200), The Fox and the Wolf (circa 1275), Piers Plowman (circa 1375), and Parliament of Fowls (circa 1375) are used to illustrate the changes in the forms of the pronouns over four centuries, Chaucer's Parliament serving to represent the emerging London standard. The results of this line-by-line analysis are presented in paradigms supported by narrative commentary which notes significant changes in pronoun forms from text to text. Texts from the southwestern dialect from 1200 to 1375 were chosen because of the geographic and linguistic correspondence between them and the standard literary dialect of the Anglo-Saxon period, West Saxon. What we see in the analysis of the pronouns from these texts is a continuum of some aspects of the West Saxon dialect: the continual use of the dual case through 1200 (The Owl and the Nightingale), the use of the h- form third person pronouns through 1375 (Parliament of Fowls), and the use of the yogh and the thorn consistently into 1200 (The Owl and the Nightingale), the yogh even being seen in some words as late as Piers Plowman, though intrestingly not in the personal pronouns. At the same time we are beginning to see variations in the pronoun forms anticipating the London standard. The changes in pronouns serve as a microcosm of the larger changes in the language which eventually result in the formulation of the London standard. While a number of the forms remain fairly constant, changing primarily in terms of simplification of spelling and reductions in the number of forms for a given pronoun, these changes illustrate the evolution of the language toward the London standard. The changes in pronouns demonstrate the tendency of the language toward simplification. For example, the number of pronoun forms have decreased from fifty-three in Bright's paradigm to some thirty-four used in Chaucer's Parliament of Fowls. Moreover, the dual case still in evidence in The Owl and the Nightingale (circa 1200) has disappeared by Chaucer's time. By the late fourteenth century, the years of Langland and Chaucer, the secon person plural pronouns forms have been reduced to the y- forms (yow). In the same era, the first person nominative pronoun has largely been simplified to I, although Chaucer occasionally uses the southern ich for emphasis or, as in the Reeve's Tale, ik for charactarization (Fisher 964), both exceptions, however, noteworthy in that they represent conscious variations from the standard. This movement toward simplification and reduction of forms indicates the movement toward a standard dialect.