Vanishing memoirs: Doğan Kardeş children's periodical between 1945 and 1993

Abstract

This study aims to carry out a descriptive and a textual analysis of Doğan Kardeş children’s periodical, which is one of the best-remembered icons of Turkey’s popular culture. The periodical was published between 1945 and 1993 under the auspices of the Yapı ve Kredi Bank. Along with the 1247 issues of the periodical, Doğan Kardeş also published more than 250 children’s books. Although Doğan Kardeş no longer survives, Yapı Kredi Yayınları has continued to publish children’s books under the title of Doğan Kardeş Kitaplığı since 1990. Using the periodical as the primary source, this study attempts to define the three meanings of Doğan Kardeş, as a project of its creators, as a legend of children’s culture, and as a lieu de memoire. First of all, Doğan Kardeş was a project of its creators: the Yapı ve Kredi Bank, Kazım Taşkent and Vedat Nedim Tör; the institute, the bourgeois and the intellectual. Although the periodical changed throughout the decades, a certain set of values remained underneath. This was a humanist, democratic project that tended to determine the life style and mentality of the new middle and upper classes. Secondly, Doğan Kardeş was a part of children’s culture. It can be concluded that the perception of childhood from the said perspective of modernity shaped Doğan Kardeş’s attitude towards children. The children loved that attitude, and they embraced Doğan Kardeş. And lastly, Doğan Kardeş is a realm of collective memory. And by its analysis, this study hopes to apprehend the dynamics of rememberance and the erasure of a memory that has been constantly reset.