Multilingual Environments in the Great War

About the Author

Julian Walker is an author working on First World War language discourse, and an Associate Lecturer at the University of the Arts London, UK.

Christophe Declercq is a Senior Lecturer in Translation Studies at the Centre for Translation Studies, University College London, UK and a Lecturer in Translation at KU Leuven, Belgium.

Product Description

This book explores the differing ways in which language has been used to try to make sense of the First World War. Offering further developments in an innovative approach to the study of the conflict, it develops a transnational viewpoint of the experience of war to reveal less expected areas of language use during the conflict.

Taking the study of the First World War far beyond the Western Front, chapters examine experiences in many regions, including Africa, Armenia, post-war Australia, Russia and Estonia, and a variety of contexts, from prisoner-of-war and internment camps, to food queues and post-war barracks. Drawing upon a wide variety of languages, such as Esperanto, Flemish, Italian, Kiswahili, Portuguese, Romanian and Turkish, Multilingual Environments in the Great War brings together language experiences of conflict from both combatants and the home front, connecting language and literature with linguistic analysis of the immediacy of communication.

Review

“This is a fascinating treatment of the Great War as a multilingual disaster. Language here is an active agent, a forger of identities, a trigger of memories, and a prism refracting the words of war into the rhetoric of remembrance. Essential reading for those perennially intrigued by the lingering shadow of the 1914-18 conflict.” ―Jay Winter, Charles J. Stille Professor of History emeritus, Yale University, USA

“This is an important study of a facet of the total war: language. In 1914-18 combatants mobilised language, which evolved to take account of new experiences, while some wartime words had an afterlife which long outlasted the conflict. A enlightening book, it deserves to be widely read.” ―Gary Sheffield, Professor of War Studies, University of Wolverhampton, UK