The Language of War: Literature and Culture in the U.S. from the Civil War through World War II

by James Dawes

The Language of War examines the relationship between language and violence, focusing on American literature from the Civil War, World War I, and World War II. James Dawes proceeds by developing two primary How does the strategic violence of war affect literary, legal, and philosophical representations? And, in turn, how do such representations affect the reception and initiation of violence itself? Authors and texts of central importance in this far-reaching study range from Louisa May Alcott and William James to William Faulkner, the Geneva Conventions, and contemporary American organizational sociology and language theory.

The consensus approach in literary studies over the past twenty years has been to treat language as an extension of violence. The idea that there might be an inverse relation between language and violence, says Dawes, has all too rarely influenced the dominant voices in literary studies today. This is an ambitious project that not only makes a serious contribution to American literary history, but also challenges some of the leading theoretical assumptions of our day.

Genres: Nonfiction, History

320 pages, Paperback

First published February 28, 2002

About the author

James Dawes is a writer and professor at Macalester College in the Twin Cities.

Reviews

[Bri · Rating 4 out of 5]

My doctoral supervisor recommended this to me not for its subject matter, but for the clarity of its prose - medicine for my prolixity and unwieldy sentences and tendency to pepper everything with semicolons. The language is excellent, but the subject itself, although not my field, of research, is handled just as well.

[Connie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was tough to get through at times and I was disappointed at the lack of attention to the female voice amongst the violent male-centricism.