Description
Fighting Words! is a critical exploration of all kinds of “bad language” and how that language shapes, reinforces, or subverts identity, ideology, and power. Eric Louis Russell expertly investigates facets of taboo language, drawing on diverse interdisciplinary material to define key concepts and using them to examine the complex dynamics behind a wide range of examples from popular culture, from Donald Trump’s controversies to Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion’s WAP.
What emerges from this analysis is the intersectionality of how language is performed and how it contributes to the shaping of identity and simultaneously shapes and is shaped by social attitudes, cultural assumptions, and systems of power with regard to race, sexuality, and gender.
With fascinating "A Closer Look" boxes and a rich array of pedagogical features, this is the perfect text for advanced students and researchers in sociolinguistics, linguistic anthropology, and related fields.
Table of Contents
Prologue – On Never Looking Away
Chapter One – Rethinking Language: Foundations for Critique
Chapter Two – Languaging Transgression: “Grabbing Pussy” and “Locker Room Talk”
Chapter Three – Languaging Meaning: “Rolling Coal” and “Having Balls”
Chapter Four – Languaging Worldview: Ideology and Mythology
Chapter Five – Languaging Authority and Power: Karens in the Wild
Chapter Six – Languaging Consequence: Linguistic Performativity and Hate Speech
Chapter Seven – Languaging Cancellation: The Ecology of Discourse and Hegemony
Chapter Eight – Languaging Rebellion: When Pussy Grabs Back
