Discourses of War and Peace
21st century perspectives
Editor
e-Book – Ordering information
ISBN 9789027243836 | EUR 125.00 | USD 163.00
The goal of this volume is to explore and make sense of the overall scope, implications and consequences of shifting discourses of war, peace and neutrality across time and space, in relation to conflict-ridden geopolitical environments characterised by power struggles, political polarizations, divergent goal settings and ideological confrontations (from the Russo-Japanese war, 1904–1905, to Russia’s war against Ukraine, 2022-present). Through a broad range of cutting-edge case studies (Finland, Germany, India, Japan, Poland, Romania, Russia/Soviet Union/Russian Federation, Slovakia, Sweden, The Netherlands, Ukraine, USA), the authors go beyond mainstream studies on war and peace by challenging existing paradigms and undergoing in-depth scrutiny of discourse argumentation strategies, historical metanarratives, reflective storytelling and visual mediatization.
Readers are called upon to reflect on, evaluate and discuss issues raised by questions like the following: To what extent are dogmatic and power-based discourse practices consequential in the evolution of political language and the language of international diplomacy regarding processes of war, peace and neutrality? In what ways have the mainstream and alternative news media changed the war reporting style, the audience-oriented verbal and visual communication strategies, and the emotion-triggering narratives?
Reaching beyond the boundaries of pragmatics and discourse analysis, this book should be a valuable resource for researchers and practitioners of rhetoric, argumentation, media studies, history, social and political sciences.
Readers are called upon to reflect on, evaluate and discuss issues raised by questions like the following: To what extent are dogmatic and power-based discourse practices consequential in the evolution of political language and the language of international diplomacy regarding processes of war, peace and neutrality? In what ways have the mainstream and alternative news media changed the war reporting style, the audience-oriented verbal and visual communication strategies, and the emotion-triggering narratives?
Reaching beyond the boundaries of pragmatics and discourse analysis, this book should be a valuable resource for researchers and practitioners of rhetoric, argumentation, media studies, history, social and political sciences.
[Pragmatics & Beyond New Series, 355] Expected June 2026. vi, 319 pp. + index
Publishing status: In production
© John Benjamins
Table of Contents
- Discursive (mis)representations of war and peace in cross-national and historical perspectivesCornelia Ilie | pp. 1–27
- Part I. (Re)contextualizing narratives of war, peace and neutrality
- Still-not-yet: Perpetual war and the futurity of peacePatricia L. Dunmire | pp. 30–62
- War-peace dialectic revisited: From neutrality to post-neutrality discourses in SwedenCornelia Ilie | pp. 63–95
- India’s war on its history of humiliation: A Discourse of Illusion approachAditi Bhatia | pp. 96–123
- The long, unsuccessful war: Discourses of Russian defeat following the Russo-Japanese war, 1905–presentRotem Kowner and Cornelia Ilie | pp. 124–154
- Part II. Contesting vs. justifying Russia’s war on Ukraine in the discursive battlefield
- Vladimir Putin’s war rhetoric between cold reflection and furious hatredDaniel Weiss | pp. 156–188
- Divergent visions on the war in Ukraine: A corpus-assisted discourse study of speeches by Putin and ZelenskyyRuth Breeze and María Fernanda Novoa-Jaso | pp. 189–216
- Debating the Ukraine war in the German public: Three open letters, an op-ed, and their uptake in the German quality pressHelmut Gruber | pp. 217–249
- Peace into war transformation in news discourse on Ukraine: A cognitive-rhetorical perspectiveSerhiy Potapenko and Oleksii Deikun | pp. 250–277
- Modification of media’s visual identity as a response to the war in Ukraine: An exploratory studyAnna Jupowicz-Ginalska, Bianca Harms, Anna Samelova, Martyna Dudziak-Kisio, Päivi Maijanen, Anca Anton, Andreas Will, Emilia Zakrzewska, Antonia Matei and Gheorghe Anghel | pp. 278–316
“This outstanding edited volume offers a timely and incisive exploration of how war, peace, and neutrality are constructed and contested in public discourse. Bringing together leading scholars, it challenges the traditional war–peace dichotomy and illuminates the grey zones of hybrid warfare and “unpeace,” providing a powerful and original framework for understanding today’s global disorder. Essential reading for scholars of discourse, international relations, political communication, and conflict studies, it compellingly demonstrates that struggles over words are inseparable from struggles over worlds.”
Ofer Feldman, Doshisha University & Kyoto University
“Utilizing the tools of language and culture analysis, this carefully edited volume offers new insights on the often contested definitions of war and peace. Misleading, over-simplified binaries are challenged in this sophisticated attempt to chart new theoretical waters. The collection is particularly valuable because the treatments include both telling historical examples and the contemporary war in Ukraine.”
Paul Joseph, Tufts University
“A timely volume which brings essential analytical rigour to the question of how language shapes our understanding of conflict at a moment when the boundary between war and peace has never been more blurred.”
Mark Leonard, Director of the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR)