36.1803, Books: Kill Talk: McIntosh (2025)

[The LINGUIST List]

LINGUIST List: Vol-36-1803. Wed Jun 11 2025. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 36.1803, Books: Kill Talk: McIntosh (2025)

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Date: 10-Jun-2025
From: Rachel Havard [Rachel.HAVARD at oup.com]
Subject: Kill Talk: McIntosh (2025)


Title: Kill Talk
Subtitle: Language and Military Necropolitics
Series Title: Oxford Studies in the Anthropology of Language
Publication Year: 2025

Publisher: Oxford University Press
           http://www.oup.com/us
Book URL:
https://global.oup.com/academic/product/kill-talk-9780197808016?utm_source=linguistlist&utm_medium=listserv&utm_campaign=linguistics

Author(s): Janet McIntosh

Hardcover: 9780197808016
Paperback: 9780197808023

Abstract:

The language used by American military personnel can be intense and
confrontational, yet the relationship between language and military
violence is rarely examined in depth. This groundbreaking book offers
a unique perspective on how language facilitates the work of combat
infantry-the state's killable killers. Through vivid ethnographic
research, Janet McIntosh meticulously traces the nuances of military
“kill talk” as it permeates the vast nervous system of the military,
from the first exposure to yelling in Marine Corps basic training to
the dark humor and nihilistic expressions found in war zones in
Vietnam and the Middle East. McIntosh reveals how military trainers
use language to deindividuate, toughen, and masculinize recruits,
while infantry soldiers develop distinct linguistic repertoires and
attitudes to suppress empathy, dehumanize and racialize the enemy,
cope with loss, and dwell in a moral gray zone.
Kill Talk also addresses national debates over language use in a
diverse world, exploring tensions between calls for sensitivity and
restraint in military speech and the perception that these can
threaten national security. The book highlights the contradictions
between the rhetoric of military honor and moral integrity and the
harsh, sometimes depraved, language of combatants, suggesting that
these paradoxes enable military violence yet contribute to moral
injury. It concludes with an exploration of veteran poets and artists
who have found innovative ways to use language and other forms of
expression to critique military institutions and begin the process of
demilitarizing their psyches.

Linguistic Field(s): Anthropological Linguistics
                     Sociolinguistics




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