Expressions of War in Australia and the Pacific: Language, Trauma, Memory, and Official Discourse (Palgrave Studies in Languages at War)

This edited book includes chapters that explore the impact of war and its aftermath in language and official discourse. It covers a broad chronological range from the First World War to very recent experiences of war, with a focus on Australia and the Pacific region. It examines three main themes in relation to language: the impact of war and trauma on language, the language of war remembrance, and the language of official communications of war and the military. An innovative work that takes an interdisciplinary approach to the themes of war and language, the collection will be of interest to students and scholars across linguistics, literary studies, history and conflict studies. Amanda Laugesen is Director of the Australian National Dictionary Centre at the Australian National University. She is the author of a number of books, including Furphies and Whizz-bangs: Anzac Slang from the Great War (2015) and Taking Books to the World: American Publishers and the Cultural Cold War (2017). Catherine Fisher is a Visiting Fellow in the School of History at the Australian National University. Her research examines the history of Australian women's broadcasting. Her work has been published in Women's History Review, Outskirts: Feminisms Along the Edge, and Lilith: A Feminist History Journal Acknowledgements 6 Contents 7 Notes on Contributors 9 Abbreviations 13 List of Figures 14 Introduction: Expressions of War in Australia and the Pacific—Language, Trauma, Memory, and Official Discourse 16 Writing About Language and War 17 Methodologies and Approaches 19 War and Trauma 20 War and Memory 23 Language, Propaganda, and Official Communication 25 Losing People: A Linguistic Analysis of Minimisation in First World War Soldiers’ Accounts of Violence 32 Methodology: Corpus and Analysis 35 Results and Discussion 38 Downplaying Violence and Death Via Figurative Language 40 Euphemism 40 Metaphor 43 Downplaying the Involvement of Humans 45 Passive Voice 45 Simplified Register 46 The Omission of the Copula 47 The Omission of the Subject 47 The Omission of Subject and Copula 48 The Omission of Existential there is/are 48 Verbless Clauses 48 Numbers Used in Isolation 48 Nominalisation/Light Verb Constructions 49 Use of Inanimate Nouns in Place of People Involved 51 Conclusion 52 Portraying the Enemy: Humour in French and Australian Trench Journals 58 Language and the Enemy 60 Naming the Enemy 61 The German Language in French and Australian Trench Journals 67 Conclusion 71 Mnemosyne and Athena: Mary Booth, Anzac, and the Language of Remembrance in the First World War and After 81 Mary Booth 82 Invoking and Evoking ‘Home’ 84 Women, Remembrance, and the Language of Anzac 87 Anzac, Britishness, and Language 89 Language and Politics in Interwar Australia 91 Conclusion 96 Jacques Rancière and the Politics of War Literature: Poetry and Trauma in Edmund Blunden’s Undertones of War (1928) 101 War Literature, Trauma, and the Experience of Suffering 102 Rancière and the Representation of Trauma 109 Voicing the War Effort: Australian Women’s Broadcasts During the Second World War 118 The Radio War 119 Language and Broadcasting 120 Opportunities for Women? 121 Voicing the War Effort at Home 122 The Meaning of Radio Speech in Troubled Times 125 The Voice of Australia 130 Conclusion 134 Re-visioning Australia’s Second World War: Race Hatred, Strategic Marginalisation, and the Visual Language of the South West Pacific Campaign 139 Creating a Visual History of the War 143 Re-reading the Visual History of Moral Triumphalism 147 Documenting Australia’s Contribution 157 ‘No written word can express the sympathy of a spoken word’: Casualty Telegrams After the Battle for Bardia, 1941 172 The Post-Traumatic Stress Communication Framework: Analysing the Discourse Within the Australian Army News 199 Background 201 The PTS Communication Framework and Its Origins 203 Legitimacy 205 Identity 208 Agency 210 Responsibility 212 Conclusion 214 ‘Testament of Youth’: Young Australians’ Responses to Anzac 218 It’s Australian 221 Sacred Anzac 224 A National Day? 225 A Family Story 226 Inclusive and Exclusive Anzac 229 What Did You Do on Anzac Day? 231 Conclusion 232 Conclusion: Languages of War 237 Index 243 Front Matter ....Pages i-xvi Introduction: Expressions of War in Australia and the Pacific—Language, Trauma, Memory, and Official Discourse (Amanda Laugesen, Catherine Fisher)....Pages 1-16 Losing People: A Linguistic Analysis of Minimisation in First World War Soldiers’ Accounts of Violence (Cara Penry Williams, John Rice-Whetton)....Pages 17-42 Portraying the Enemy: Humour in French and Australian Trench Journals (Véronique Duché)....Pages 43-65 Mnemosyne and Athena: Mary Booth, Anzac, and the Language of Remembrance in the First World War and After (Bridget Brooklyn)....Pages 67-86 Jacques Rancière and the Politics of War Literature: Poetry and Trauma in Edmund Blunden’s Undertones of War (1928) (Neil Ramsey)....Pages 87-103 Voicing the War Effort: Australian Women’s Broadcasts During the Second World War (Catherine Fisher)....Pages 105-125 Re-visioning Australia’s Second World War: Race Hatred, Strategic Marginalisation, and the Visual Language of the South West Pacific Campaign (Kevin Foster)....Pages 127-159 ‘No written word can express the sympathy of a spoken word’: Casualty Telegrams After the Battle for Bardia, 1941 (John Moremon)....Pages 161-187 The Post-Traumatic Stress Communication Framework: Analysing the Discourse Within the Australian Army News (Lisa Ranson, Leanne Glenny)....Pages 189-207 ‘Testament of Youth’: Young Australians’ Responses to Anzac (Rebecca Wheatley)....Pages 209-227 Conclusion: Languages of War (Amanda Laugesen, Catherine Fisher)....Pages 229-234 Back Matter ....Pages 235-237