Book Description

This volume examines the construction of Turkey's possible European Union accession in French political discourse. In today's France, heated debates regarding Turkey's EU membership are turning into an essential part of European identity formation. Once again, the `Turkish Other' functions as a mirror for defining not only the `European Self', but also European values. By providing a genuine and multi-disciplinary approach for studying the Otherness attributed to Turkey, this book contributes to our understading of the Self/Other nexus in International Relations. Within a Critical Discourse Analysis framework, this study explores the socio-historical basis of the construction of Turkey's Otherness in an attempt to identify the processes through which past memories, representations, images and fantasies regarding Turkey are inserted into the French social imaginary. Focusing on these significations, which are (re)produced and become manifest through language, this book strives to uncover the link between discourse and political action. "Beyza Tekin's book helps us make sense of the complexities in an unusually detailed and explicit way by deploying the sophisticated techniques we now have for the analysis of discourse. This is a book with historical depth. It is also a book that offers precise analysis. Historians, sociologists, policymakers, as well as discourse analysts - all have much to learn from this book." Paul Chilton, University of Lancaster "This is an original and insightful study of the construction of Turkey in French political discourse and offers a valuable analysis of the formation of European identity." Gerard Delanty, University of Sussex "From the Saracen slayer to the ally of renaissance Kings to civilisation's apprentice to hotly contested EU applicant-here the changing social fact of Turkey in French discourse is given its fullest treatment to date." Iver B. Neumann, author of Uses of the Other `the East' in European Identity Formation