Languages at war: cultural preparations for the Liberation of Western Europe
Languages at war: cultural preparations for the Liberation of Western Europe
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DOI：
10.1386/jwcs.3.1.109_1
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发表时间：
2010-05
影响因子：
0.4
通讯作者：
Hilary Footitt
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Hilary Footitt
虽然战争研究中的文化转向现在已经在各个学科中得到了很好的发展，但在这些文化视角中对外语角色的考察在很大程度上是缺失的。本文利用布鲁诺·拉图尔的作品来探索外语在战争中的存在，跟随1944年西欧解放的过程，语言被翻译成部署前的文化准备。研究了两种截然不同的情况：为进入欧洲大陆的大量部队准备的材料和为较小规模的民政官员干部准备的材料。这篇文章认为，外语在战争中并不是看不见的，而是战争体现的一个组成部分，它们的存在可能会挑战我们开始扩大我们对文化和战争的理解，并重新审视更多的传统观念，即在战争情况下，什么可以被称为外语。
Abstract While the cultural turn in war studies is now well developed across disciplines, an examination of the role of foreign languages within these cultural perspectives is largely absent. This article uses insights from the work of Bruno Latour in order to explore the presence of foreign languages in war, following the processes by which languages were translated into pre-deployment cultural preparations for the Liberation of Western Europe in 1944. Two contrasting cases are examined: material prepared for the massive number of troops entering continental Europe and the preparation of the smaller cadre of Civil Affairs officers. The article argues that foreign languages are not invisible in warfare, but are rather an integral part of the embodiment of war, and that their presence may challenge us to begin to broaden our understandings of culture and war and to review more traditional notions of what can be said to constitute foreign languages in war situations.