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Mazlum Kemal Dağdelen Sample Image & Nico Carpentier Sample Image

Abstract

This research analyses the construction of childhood in three children’s books related to the Cyprus Problem through the lens of Laclau and Mouffe’s discourse theory. The discourse on childhood, deployed in books whose narratives are related to an armed conflict, is seen to have four nodal points: innocence, citizenship, savagery, and otherness. Our discourse-theoretical analysis, which uses a retroductive approach (Glynos and Howarth), demonstrates that in these three children’s books, the nodal points of innocence and citizenship are particularly strong, but all four nodal points are present. The analysis also shows how these nodal points intersect with the discourses of victimhood and militarism, which alter the articulation of the childhood discourse itself and produce significant internal tensions. These alterations and tensions demonstrate the deeply political nature of the childhood discourse at times of war.

Keywords
childhood, Cyprus Problem, childhood constructionism, discourse theory, war, victimisation, militarisation

Dağdelen, M. K., & Carpentier, N. (2024). The discursive construction of childhood in three Turkish children’s books about the Cyprus Problem. International Research in Children’s Literature, 17(2), 144–159. https://doi.org/10.3366/ircl.2024.0560

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Mazlum Kemal Dağdelen Sample Image

Abstract

This research offers a discourse-theoretical analysis of the construction of the militarist discourse in Turkish Cypriot children’s magazines, with a specific focus on the magazine Tuncer. The selected data for analysis consist of 14 issues published between January 1967 and December 1968. The chosen period is deliberate, aligning with crucial turning points in the Cyprus Problem, marked by heightened collective violence. To better understand the articulation of the militarist discourse within these issues of Tuncer, a theoretical model is developed drawing on Laclau and Mouffe’s discourse theory. The militarist discourse is seen to have 4 nodal points: (1) the army as a national protection assemblage, (2) obligated citizenship, (3) the sanctity of sacrifice, and (4) the need for the destruction of the enemy. The analysis demonstrates the presence of all 4 nodal points, with particular emphasis on the strength of the army as a national protection assemblage and the need for the destruction of the enemy. Furthermore, the contextualization within the Cyprus Problem unveils internal conflations, highlighting the deeply political nature of the militarist discourse.

Keywords
militarism, children’s magazines, discourse theory, childhood, Cyprus Problem

DAGDELEN, Mazlum Kemal. Media and Propaganda| “Today’s Children, Tomorrow’s Mujahideen”: A Discourse-Theoretical Analysis of the Militarist Discourse in a Turkish Cypriot Children’s Magazine. International Journal of Communication, [S.l.], v. 18, p. 20, sep. 2024. ISSN 1932-8036. Available at: <https://ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc/article/view/22345>.

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Vaia Doudaki Sample Image , Miloš Hroch Sample Image , Sara Cannizzaro Sample Image , Andrea Miconi Sample Image & Andrea Miconi Sample Image

Abstract

The article aims to capture the significatory diversity of the concepts of Europeanity and Europeanisation, through the development of a semantic map in order to visualize the different concepts that define Europeanity and Europeanisation, and their interconnections. Embedded in the field of Communication and Media Studies, this semantic map combines 19 different approaches, structured through one main dimension, the discursive versus the material, which allows bridging the major rift in the conceptual reflections about Europeanity and Europeanisation. Moreover, the semantic map uses two support dimensions, with the discursive dimension intersecting with the essentialist versus relationist dimension, and the material dimension intersecting with the socio-spatial versus politico-spatial dimension. In order to construct this semantic map, phases of both general and targeted literature reviews were combined with a participatory theory-building method, which was grounded in collaborative knowledge building and collaborative theory construction approaches.

Keywords
Semantic map; Europeanity; Europeanisation; Discursive; Material.

Carpentier, N., Hroch, M., Cannizzaro, S., Miconi, A., & Doudaki, V. (2023). Bridging the discursive and material dimensions of Europeanity and Europeanisation: A participatory semantic map approach. Observatorio (OBS), 17*(1). https://doi.org/10.15847/obsOBS17120232251