The Military Literary

It has been especially interesting to investigate the way that militarized action has been linked to a specific kind of language that uses the literary to instill patriarchal and hegemonic systems of power both concretely through military action but also ideologically through the language used to describe such action. Examples of this link between the literary and the military are the naming of the atomic bombs, "Little Boy" and "Fat Man" as well as the code names for the soldiers in the Collateral Murder video. Code names took on Native American names, tourism, and the idea of spectacle through names such as "Crazy Horse", "Hotel 26" and "Bush Master 8". The use of literary rhetoric in describing and naming military action has a kind of duality that seems to be deeply connected to the postmodern era that rises out of the atomic bombing. Here we see language use the power of history and future at the same time. New military actions are named with historical language of colonialism, patriarchal power, and the romanticization of previous American conquests and placed onto new military interactions. 

Through recognizing the ability of language to be so alienating and understanding the way that literary allusions to American history of colonialism have an effect on the way that military actions are understood by the public, we can use the power of language to build a critique of previous and current American policy and actions. One must first recognize the multiplicity of the language to understand the deeply rooted history of American military politics and the way that a hidden language of racism has been enscripted in both the legal and military language that the US has used in dealing with foreign nations. It only through critically examining the language of American politics that we can get to the root of what is truly being said and done.