(Dis-)Harmony

The present volume investigates the representation and use AV of multilingualism, language variation in English and other languages in a variety of media and cultural production (stand-up comedy shows, drag shows, musical genres, TV series, sports commentary, to name some). Scholars from various disciplines – from literary or cultural studies, from linguistics, language teaching, and media studies – discuss a (dis-)harmony of voices, identity formation, (media) representation, power distribution and awareness. They look at the (linguistic) representations of (marginalized) groups or communities in films, TV series, novels, songs etc. and some include the analysis of the language(s) and language varieties used. They discuss the visibility, agency, empowerment, stereotyping or ridiculing of different social groups and treat issues of authenticity, (self-)identity formation, style-shifting, audiences, media types and genres. With this, the present volume explores and expands the concept of polyphony as it was famously employed by Mikhail Bakhtin in 1929.