I’ve been researching swearing for 5 years now, starting with my final year undergraduate project, continuing with my Master’s dissertation project, and now moving on to an entire PhD. As a result, I own (and have read) a lot of books about swearing. I’m currently revisiting them all, working my way through them as I start to draw together the knowledge they contain to help allow me to create a strong knowledge base from which to introduce my PhD thesis.
I thought it might be nice, therefore, to create a series of posts in this blog where I’ll give you a brief outline to the books I read. I’m not going to write a full on review for each book, but I want to provide you with a reference list of what’s out there and a quick overview as to what to expect if you decide to find a copy and give it a read.
And so, without further ado, I give you the first three books…
What the F by Benjamin Bergen
Even though you can feel Bergen’s passion for the topic coming through, the book can feel dense to read in places. It also, often, relies on single case studies or potentially superficial examples to justify it’s conclusions. It’s worth a read, because it provides a good introduction to the world of swearing and does get better as it goes along, but I would treat it as a book to read once you’ve already dipped your toes into the topic, rather than the starting point ⭐⭐⭐
For F*ck's Sake by Rebecca Roache
As a book, I’d argue it’s not the deepest dive in why swearing is shocking, rude, and fun, as it doesn’t feel like it really provides an answer (especially when compared to some of the others). However, the book does a really good job of tackling a very difficult, philosophical question: what makes a swear word a swear word? If you have an interest in the philosophy of language then this book will be right up your street. ⭐⭐⭐
Swearing Is Good For You by Emma Byrne
This is the book brought the wonderful world of swearing research into my life. It great at boiling down a lot of knowledge about the psychology of swearing into language that is easy to understand, easy to read, and easy to follow. My only complaint is that some of the ‘facts’ are relayed from interviews Byrne has conducted, making them hard to fact check, but overall, it’s still the book I’d start with when learning about swearing ⭐⭐⭐⭐
