A Study of the Process of Reconciliation or Taking Revenge in Children's Literature Through Critical Discourse Analysis and Suggesting a Model

This article analyzes war fiction through critical discourse analysis (CDA) and aims to pose a model for war through linguistics. Based on this model three stories for children are analyzed. These stories are investigated to determine if they are conciliating stories or revenging ones. To do so, discursive practices are studied based on Van Dijk (2008) to see whether there are polarization of " us"/ our side and " others"/ the other side or enemy and if it is so, whether the enemy is represented wholly negative and our side quite positive. It is assumed that if a story represents our side vs. the enemy in a polarized way, it is engaged with revenge; if it is not polarized then it is engaged with reconciliation. Stories of reconciliation are suitable for postwar situations as they decrease the hatred toward war actors and help the process of peace between two nations.