Contemporary American Military Literature: Reflections of Post 9/11 Military Members and Veterans’ Struggle to Linguistically Style Shift during Interpersonal Interactions
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Abstract
When people think of military communication within literature, the image that often comes to mind is Tom Clancy-esque uniformed soldiers using radios to communicate top secret or tactical information with stereotypical buzz words and phrases like “roger” or “over and out.” When thinking about more realistic literary portrayals of interpersonal communication from military members/veterans, one might picture heart-wrenching storylines centering on miscommunication related to the service member’s struggle to reintegrate with a possible added layer of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. However, one portrayal of military/veteran interpersonal communication within literature that is often overlooked is linguistic style shifting. More specifically, military members and veterans’ struggle to appropriately style shift when interacting with or around civilians. Within contemporary military literature, to include realistic fiction and nonfiction/biographies, there is often a depiction of military members/veterans struggling to linguistically style shift when interacting with varying civilian audiences in both military and non-military settings. This paper’s argument will be explored and unpacked using a combination of literary analysis methods. Specifically, close reading will be utilized in conjunction with the New Historicism literary framework. Particularly, this theoretical framework will be utilized during the examination of how contemporary military literature reveals the social reality of military members and veterans’ struggle to linguistically style shift in order to accommodate their non-military audiences. Additionally, this paper will unpack the concepts of power and subversion as they relate to style shifting (or the lack thereof) within military communication.