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Article published In:
Journal of Language and Politics
Vol. 16:6 (2017) ► pp.782–808

Linguistic landscape of Gezi Park protests in Turkey

A discourse analysis of graffiti

| Illinois State University
| Illinois State University

Gezi Park protests that rocked Turkey in 2013 left a significant mark in the country’s collective memory and contributed to the construction of a new language of political resistance. To challenge an increasingly authoritarian government, the protesters used novel repertoires of contention, particularly political graffiti. To better understand different types of linguistic and symbolic communication tools used in the public space during Gezi Park protests and their impact on different set of audiences, this article explores the following research questions: (i) What indexical properties are used in the languages used in graffiti, and what do they mean for understanding the various audiences that the protesters engaged? (ii) What counter-narratives are created in the graffiti produced during Gezi Park protests?

Keywords: Linguistic landscape, indexicality, social protests, graffiti, Turkey, Turkish politics, Gezi Park, protest movements, collective action, resistance, Mediated Discourse Analysis (MDA)
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Background: 2013 Gezi Park protests
  • 3.Theoretical framework: Language in the public sphere
    • Graffiti as a form of transgressive writing
  • 4.Data collection and analysis
  • 5.The analysis of Gezi graffiti
    • Language mixing and code-meshing in graffiti
    • Appropriation of local and global pop culture
    • Using political humor to highlight individual liberty restrictions
    • Blurring of ideological boundaries through graffiti
    • Police Brutality and Media Censorship in the Linguistic Landscape of Gezi
    • Right to the City: Ownership of the Urban Space in Graffiti and Political Posters
    • Target Audiences
  • 6.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 27 June 2017
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https://doi.org/10.1075/jlp.15037.sel
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