SCOURSE, CULTURE, AND THE CONSTRUCTION OF SOCIAL REALITY: A CRITICAL AND DISCURSIVE PERSPECTIVE

This article examines the relationship between discourse, culture, and the construction of social reality from critical and discursive perspectives. It argues that discourse should not be understood merely as a linguistic means of representing an already existing reality. Rather, discourse functions as a constitutive mechanism through which cultural meanings, social identities, subject positions, and interpretations of reality are continuously produced, negotiated, reproduced, and transformed. Drawing on Critical Discourse Analysis, Discourse Theory, social constructionism, and interpretive approaches to culture, the study examines the relationship between discourse, power, ideology, subjectivity, and cultural meaning-making. Particular attention is paid to the role of discourse communities and interdiscursive interaction in the reproduction and transformation of cultural meanings. The analysis demonstrates that cultural reality is neither completely fixed nor entirely imposed by dominant institutions. Although institutional and media discourses may establish hegemonic interpretations, discourse communities retain the capacity to negotiate, reinterpret, and challenge established meanings. The study therefore conceptualizes culture as an ongoing process of symbolic interaction in which discourse simultaneously reflects inherited meanings and creates possibilities for cultural change.