Chapter 3

(De?) constructing and rewriting the history

This chapter proceeds methodically to scrutinizing the assumption that examining imagined representations of crucial historical figures and affairs that consolidate an alternative reading of modern Turkish history is the main essence of understanding the influence of Ottoman admiration re-writing the past. Before exploring the elements of the discourse and policy relationship, a major issue worth analyzing is the discursive forge that deconstructs and reconstructs the tenets/components of Turkish history and political culture. The chapter primarily reveals discourses of deconstruction and reconstruction through CDA and DHA. The political discourse of reconstruction is the central pillar that paves the way for the discursive introduction of a new paradigm in which a rhetorician is positioned as the most suitable narrator and agent of action. On the grounds of reciprocal constructive identification with others, the discourse of deconstruction scapegoats the opposition for the malaises of the present, whereas the discourse of reconstruction rebuilds the in-group as superior to all others.