JOURNAL OF LANGUAGE STUDIES

The Discourse of War and Peace in the Literary Narratives of Conflict Zones

May Tahseen Hameed

College of Education for Humanities, Diyala University

Mayada Khdayr Yass

College of Education for Humanities, Diyala University

Hind Tahseen Hameed

College of Education for Humanities, Diyala University

DOI: https://doi.org/10.25130/Lang.8.12.20

Keywords: dehumanization, discourse analysis, Fairclough’s framework, post-colonial, trauma

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Abstract

This study aims to analyze how the narratives from the areas of conflict treat the notions of war, with reference to the literary works of “The Red Badge of Courage” authored by Stephen Crane and “All Quiet on the Western Front” authored by Erich Maria Remarque. This study investigates in detail how these novels subvert conventional political and cultural discourses on war through language and other textual strategies. The study adopts a qualitative approach to analyze the data using Norman Fairclough’s three-dimensional framework for discourse analysis, the study analyzes both texts at three levels: Textual or New Historicist, social and postcolonial, historical and postmodernist. The present study finds that the myth of war as glorious is challenged by both authors as they conceptualize the psychological and emotional distraught that comes with engaging in combat. Both novels show this by portraying soldier as disillusioned men, who are filled with fear, anxiety, and sorrowing and denying an idealistic heroic image of war, informing the characters and readers that in war, human being need companionship. Both works illustrate that the true beauty of the story lies in the ugliness of war; this paper argues that, therefore, only a genuine struggle could result in achievements, not celebrations of war. The study further concludes that these sorts of literary works rise above traditional sort of warfare, and are more realistic and coming closer to the real human feel of the issues resulting from warfare.

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