ABSTRACT
This conclusion presents some closing thoughts on the concepts discussed in the preceding chapters of this book. The book describes the autobiographical narratives from several angles. In the discourse of the newly established Turkish Republic, autobiography took on a special importance as an "alternative narrative" which could complement or correct the official way of writing history. Yet an important element of autobiographical remembering, nostalgia for lost persons, things and places, also make their first appearance in opening paragraphs. The evidence from autobiographical narratives in many ways confirms Benjamin Fortna's analysis of how the "Ottoman school" was presented in the republican discourse. The element of witness-ship is once more very strong in autobiographical narratives of upheaval and war. The witness statement serves as a salutary example for the audience or a way in which the author can convey an alternative view of the past, which the autobiographer sees as distorted or wrong, or of course both.
