Language as Literary Power: A Critical Analysis of Post-9/11 Political Discourse in Sandra Silberstein’s “War of Words”

Abstract

This article offers a linguistic analysis of Sandra Silberstein’s War of Words: Language, Politics and 9/11 (2002) through the lens of discourse theory, metaphor and other literary devices analysis. It argues that the political rhetoric following 9/11 transformed language into a literary system of myth-making, metaphor, and narrative framing. From the Kosovo-Albanian scholarly perspective, grounded in the recognition of the United States as a principal supporter of Kosovo’s independence and a decisive actor in the cessation of the conflict through its political and military interventions, the primary aim is to conduct a nuanced analysis of the metaphors embedded in post-crisis language. This analysis is undertaken with both cultural affinity and critical analytical distance, refraining from judgment or normative critique, and focusing instead on how such metaphors operate as both articulations of trauma and as frameworks for collective memory and sociopolitical action. Using Critical Discourse Analysis and Cognitive Metaphor Theory, the study investigates how Silberstein conceptualizes language as a semiotic resource that constructs and negotiates national identity and rationalizes foreign policy through metaphorical mappings and discourse structuring mechanisms and the way it resonates with the post-war situation in Kosovo.