In Front of God, Next to the Neighbours

Abstract

This article presents how emotions contribute to the construction of self-images by shaping perceptions of particular problems that arise during cultural encounters, as described in Turkish instruction textbooks in Germany. I argue that textbooks serve as key information and emotion entrepreneurs, generating emotional resources to shape particular understandings of problems while constructing self-image(s) in transgenerational and transcultural contexts during these encounters between heritage- and mainstream-cultures. A critical discourse analysis of narratives depicting how they were considered as a challenge to the socio-cultural belonging of the actors of heritage culture would highlight textbooks’ representative role as agents of social change through the adoption of specific discursive components and strategies. In addition to research on emotions and textbooks, the analysis would contribute to the study of religion by demonstrating how debates referring to religious reasoning can be approached as social issues perceived and conceptualized through an emotional framework attached to socio-cultural belonging.