The Fence of Speech and the Barracks of Language: The Role of Language in Breaking and Making Compliant Subjects in
The Fence and My Father's Dogs and Full Metal Jacket
This study comparatively analyzes the systematic function of impoliteness within two authoritarian structures: the closed patriarchal system in Shirzad Hassan’s The Fence and My Father’s Dogs and the centralized military order in Stanley Kubrick’s film Full Metal Jacket. Employing Culpeper’s (2011) model for identifying impoliteness strategies and Bousfield’s (2008) framework for analyzing reactions to it, the research examines how impoliteness is deployed to dismantle personal face and identity while reconstructing compliant, uniform subjects, and it investigates associated forms of resistance. Findings reveal that in both contexts, impoliteness transcends individual interaction, becoming an institutional “disciplinary technology” aimed at erasing prior individuality and manufacturing obedience. Both systems employ positive and negative impoliteness systematically. Their core divergence lies in the ultimate objective: the father’s discourse seeks to perpetuate a static, closed socio-economic order, whereas Sergeant Hartman’s aims to produce efficient war machines for external conflict. Resistance, initially scattered and covert, ultimately coalesces in the most vulnerable subjects (the eldest son/Private Pyle), manifesting as the assassination of the authority figure—an act that itself reproduces the system’s inherent violent logic. The study concludes that within such closed authoritarian contexts, impoliteness becomes an ideological tool for social and psychological engineering. This pattern, despite surface differences, shares a common, destructive core and validates the utility of Culpeper and Bousfield’s frameworks for analyzing literary and cinematic texts as representations of complex power relations.
Rahmani, H. (2026). The Fence of Speech and the Barracks of Language: The Role of Language in Breaking and Making Compliant Subjects in
The Fence and My Father's Dogs and Full Metal Jacket. Journal of Kurdish Literature, 12(1), -. doi: 10.22034/jokl.2026.145429.1475
MLA
Rahmani, H. . "The Fence of Speech and the Barracks of Language: The Role of Language in Breaking and Making Compliant Subjects in
The Fence and My Father's Dogs and Full Metal Jacket", Journal of Kurdish Literature, 12, 1, 2026, -. doi: 10.22034/jokl.2026.145429.1475
HARVARD
Rahmani, H. (2026). 'The Fence of Speech and the Barracks of Language: The Role of Language in Breaking and Making Compliant Subjects in
The Fence and My Father's Dogs and Full Metal Jacket', Journal of Kurdish Literature, 12(1), pp. -. doi: 10.22034/jokl.2026.145429.1475
CHICAGO
H. Rahmani, "The Fence of Speech and the Barracks of Language: The Role of Language in Breaking and Making Compliant Subjects in
The Fence and My Father's Dogs and Full Metal Jacket," Journal of Kurdish Literature, 12 1 (2026): -, doi: 10.22034/jokl.2026.145429.1475
VANCOUVER
Rahmani, H. The Fence of Speech and the Barracks of Language: The Role of Language in Breaking and Making Compliant Subjects in
The Fence and My Father's Dogs and Full Metal Jacket. Journal of Kurdish Literature, 2026; 12(1): -. doi: 10.22034/jokl.2026.145429.1475
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