Building ‘Ideal Turkish Child’ in Children’s Magazines of the One-Party Period: A Review on Yavrutürk and Cumhuriyet Çocuğu Magazines

Abstract

In process the transition from empire to nation-state, the founding elites of the Republic attempted to create a national collective identity and tried to build a modern community of the citizens suitable for the new regime. In addition to educational tools, popular periodicals were used in raising new citizens who adopted the Republican values. At this point, children's magazines provided wide opportunities to reach children as citizens of the future and to adopt Republic values. In this study, the ways in which children were represented in children's magazines in the one-party period were analyzed. The aim of the study is to reveal how the 'ideal Turkish child' was built in children's magazines published in mentioned period; and uncover the relationship of this building process with the official citizenship ideology and child policy of the period. In the study, prepared with historical descriptive analysis method, Yavrutürk (1936)(1937)(1938)(1939)(1940)(1941)(1942) and Cumhuriyet Çocuğu (1938)(1939) were examined. Yavrutürk and Cumhuriyet Çocuğu magazines are weekly children's magazines published by Türkiye Printing House in the ownership of Tahsin Demiray, who is one of the first and most important representatives of children's magazine publishing in Turkey. It was determined that the image of the child presented in the reviewed magazines was built in parallel with the official citizenship ideology and children's policy of the period. 'Ideal Turkish child' was represented as Kemalist, reformist, modern, hard-working, determined, ambitious, economical, moral, kind, helpful, respectful to individual, society and nature, nationalist, courageous and warrior, patriotic citizen around the dominant values of the Republic in both magazines.

Evaluation of Olgun Children’s Journal (1935) within the Scope of Adding Nation and History Awareness to Children

“…Türkiye'de çocuk dergilerine yönelik araştırmalar, çoğunlukla eski harfli olan dergilere odaklanmaktadır (Akbayrak, 2014). Türkiye'de özellikle 1950'lere kadar olan dönemde yayımlanan yeni harfli çocuk dergilerini inceleyen çalışmalar sınırlı sayıdadır (Alabaş, 2019;Alabaş ve Kamer, 2016;Duman, 2010;Öztekin, 2019;Turanlı, 2017;Üstündağ ve Bakan, 2022). Oysa bu dergilerin de çalışmalara daha fazla konu edilmesi alanyazına katkı sunacaktır.…”

“…Research on children's magazines in Turkey mostly focuses on magazines with old letters (Akbayrak, 2014). Studies examining new-letter children's magazines published in Turkey, especially until the 1950s, are limited (Alabaş, 2019;Alabaş & Kamer, 2016;Duman, 2010;Öztekin, 2019;Turanlı, 2017;Üstündağ & Bakan, 2022). However, more subject matter of these magazines will contribute to the literature.…”