Expressions of War in Australia and the Pacific, 1st ed. 2020
Language, Trauma, Memory, and Official Discourse
Palgrave Studies in Languages at War Series

Coordinators: Laugesen Amanda, Fisher Catherine

Language: English

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Expressions of War in Australia and the Pacific
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Expressions of War in Australia and the Pacific
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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.


Chapter 1: Introduction: Expression of war in Australia and the Pacific: Language, trauma, memory, and official discourse (Amanda Laugesen and Catherine Fisher).
Chapter 2: Losing people: A linguistic analysis of minimisation in First World War soldiers' accounts of violence (Cara Penry Williams and John Rice-Whetton).
Chapter 3: Portraying the enemy: Humour in French and Australian trench journals (Véronique Duché).
Chapter 4: Mnemosyne and Athena: Mary Booth, Anzac, and the language of remembrance in the First World War and after (Bridget Brooklyn).
Chapter 5: Jacques Rancière and the politics of war literature: Poetry and trauma in Edmund Blunden’s Undertones of War (1928) (Neil Ramsey).
Chapter 6: Voicing the war effort: Australian women's broadcasts during the Second World War (Catherine Fisher).
Chapter 7: Re-visioning Australia's Second World War: Race hatred, strategic marginalisation, and the visual language of the South West Pacific Campaign (Kevin Foster).
Chapter 8: 'No written word can express the sympathy of a spoken word': Casualty telegrams after the Battle for Bardia, 1941 (John Moremon).
Chapter 9: The PTS communication framework: analysing the discourse within the Australian Army News (Lisa Ranson and Leanne Glenny).
Chapter 10: 'Testament of youth': Young Australians' responses to Anzac (Rebecca Wheatley).
Chapter 11: Conclusion: Languages of War (Amanda Laugesen and Catherine Fisher).

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.


Directly contributes to the project of understanding language in the context of war and conflict

Makes use of a variety of fascinating resources such as collections of war photography, records of women’s radio broadcasts, soldiers’ letters, oral interviews, and casualty notifications

Shifts and broadens the geographical focus of the existing scholarship in language and war

Draws on innovative methods from a variety of disciplines