A Critical Discourse Analysis Approach to Othering: Depiction of the Syrian Refugee Experience in Turkish Children’s Literature

This paper is a critical examination of discursive strategies of othering in three refugee-focused books in Turkish children’s literature written after the onset of Syrian civil war. Drawing upon Van Dijk’s ideological analysis, eliciting the representation of “us vs. them” in a network of semantic...

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Main Author: Neslihan Kansu Yetkiner
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: University of Zadar 2021-06-01
Series:[sic]
Online Access:http://www.sic-journal.org/ArticleView.aspx?aid=661
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author Neslihan Kansu Yetkiner
author_facet Neslihan Kansu Yetkiner
author_sort Neslihan Kansu Yetkiner
collection DOAJ
description This paper is a critical examination of discursive strategies of othering in three refugee-focused books in Turkish children’s literature written after the onset of Syrian civil war. Drawing upon Van Dijk’s ideological analysis, eliciting the representation of “us vs. them” in a network of semantic and formal structures, the study has two closely related main aims. The first is to show how children’s literature, as a significant conveyor of norms, values, and ideology, provides fertile ground to examine power relations. The second is to identify discursive strategies of othering, which categorize and underscore group-based differences by attributing negative characteristics, in three Turkish children’s books about the Syrian war. Findings demonstrate that negative representation of the Other is foregrounded by actor description, lexicalization, and implicitness within the framework of semantic structures. Formal structures resonate with topoi under the umbrella of argumentation and rhetoric, with special emphasis upon allegory.
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spelling doaj-art-28aa492eaf9142fc825c66888d5cc3fb2025-08-20T02:21:35ZengUniversity of Zadar[sic]1847-77552021-06-0111210.15291/sic/2.11.lc.5661A Critical Discourse Analysis Approach to Othering: Depiction of the Syrian Refugee Experience in Turkish Children’s LiteratureNeslihan Kansu YetkinerThis paper is a critical examination of discursive strategies of othering in three refugee-focused books in Turkish children’s literature written after the onset of Syrian civil war. Drawing upon Van Dijk’s ideological analysis, eliciting the representation of “us vs. them” in a network of semantic and formal structures, the study has two closely related main aims. The first is to show how children’s literature, as a significant conveyor of norms, values, and ideology, provides fertile ground to examine power relations. The second is to identify discursive strategies of othering, which categorize and underscore group-based differences by attributing negative characteristics, in three Turkish children’s books about the Syrian war. Findings demonstrate that negative representation of the Other is foregrounded by actor description, lexicalization, and implicitness within the framework of semantic structures. Formal structures resonate with topoi under the umbrella of argumentation and rhetoric, with special emphasis upon allegory.http://www.sic-journal.org/ArticleView.aspx?aid=661
spellingShingle Neslihan Kansu Yetkiner
A Critical Discourse Analysis Approach to Othering: Depiction of the Syrian Refugee Experience in Turkish Children’s Literature
[sic]
title A Critical Discourse Analysis Approach to Othering: Depiction of the Syrian Refugee Experience in Turkish Children’s Literature
title_full A Critical Discourse Analysis Approach to Othering: Depiction of the Syrian Refugee Experience in Turkish Children’s Literature
title_fullStr A Critical Discourse Analysis Approach to Othering: Depiction of the Syrian Refugee Experience in Turkish Children’s Literature
title_full_unstemmed A Critical Discourse Analysis Approach to Othering: Depiction of the Syrian Refugee Experience in Turkish Children’s Literature
title_short A Critical Discourse Analysis Approach to Othering: Depiction of the Syrian Refugee Experience in Turkish Children’s Literature
title_sort critical discourse analysis approach to othering depiction of the syrian refugee experience in turkish children s literature
url http://www.sic-journal.org/ArticleView.aspx?aid=661
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