Thematic And Discursive Construction of Homosexual Movement In Turkey Through Kaos GL Magazine

Abstract

This dissertation aims at investigating thematic and discursive construction of homosexuality through texts published in Kaos GL Magazine, the first and longest-standing alternative gay and lesbian publication in Turkey. More specifically, the research is an attempt to unearth two discursive-linguistic aspects of texts: (1) thematic distribution and thematic relation patterns of the texts; (2) discursive strategies and linguistic means and forms of realisation on which the construction of homosexual movement is based. To this end, 6 texts in the first five-year of the magazine (between the years 1994 and 1999) were purposively selected at the end of a preliminary inventory research, and included into grounded thematic analysis and Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA). In the former analytical procedure, based on Grounded Theory (Glaser and Strauss, 1967; Corbin and Strauss, 2008), a systematic coding process was carried out, eventually finding out two most frequent thematic categories which describe the social order and the way homosexuals positioned themselves in the specific period of time. Textual segments pertaining to the categories obtained through the coding process were finally included into CDA. This analysis was based on the framework of the Discourse-Historical Approach, a well-established tradition in CDA studies. In accordance with this model and an added ‘insider’ perspective (Wodak, 2011), textual segments were diachronically analysed to find out the ways the social actors are represented (van Leeuwen, 1996 & Wodak et al., 2000). The findings of grounded thematic analysis show that, within five years, homosexuals’ description of the social order was mostly and consistently based on the themes heterosexism and homophobia while a strong emphasis on constructing a collective and unifying action was observed in the second half of the period as a way of self-description. In a parallel sense CDA findings demonstrate that, in the context of the socio-historical background of the period, homosexuals construct a counter negative-othering discourse to describe the society in the early texts of the period while a positive-self presentation comes to the forefront towards the end of the period based on the goal of forming group solidarity. The study is significant for revealing that it is not always the marginalised groups that are negatively presented in dominant discourses but also marginalised in-groups can identify themselves with out-groups by making use of similar negative-other presentation strategies. In this sense this study has implications for researchers, particularly in the field of Queer Linguistics, who aim at investigating in-group discourses. Also, the findings of the study can serve as a basis for further research on the construction of homosexuality not only through texts but also other discursive practices. Keywords Critical Discourse Analysis, Queer Linguistics, social constructivism, homosexual movement, group identity, Kaos GL Magazine