The research topic as a guideline (2015) (original) (raw)

2015, Borders and the Changing Boundaries of Knowledge, Edited by Inga Brandell, Marie Carlsson, Önver Çetrez, Istanbul, Swedish Research Institute in Istanbul Transactions, vol. 22, pp. 77-88

There are several ways of studying the history of a historical narrative: from outside (institutions, authors, academic trends, etc.) and from inside; in the latter case, the historian must become a discourse analyst, and build a method in accordance with the discourse itself. But his work can rapidly lead from an analysis of a representation to an analysis of words, pirctures or maps, which all are signs. Soon the signs become themselves research topics and, like the leaves of a tree, can enable the researcher to identify the tree itself. Thus, insignificant objects in the daily press or in the urban landscape can reveal the nature of a state ideology. From history to linguistics and semiology, from semiology to anthropology, and back to micro-history: mapping out a posteriori the path I have followed, I am just trying here to find a coherence in my previous researches about contemporary Turkey and Cyprus.