REFLECTIONS OF THE MARSHALL AID AND THE USA: FAKIR BAYKURT’S AMERIKAN SARGISI (AMERICAN BANDAGE)

Abstract

This paper is an attempt to analyze how American involvement in Turkey through the Marshall Plan is ironically and satirically explored through the feelings and ideas of the villagers in Fakir Baykurt’s novel Amerikan Sargısı (American Bandage). The novel is set in an important era in Turkish history when the Democrat Party ruled the country and accepted the Marshall Plan, officially named the European Recovery Program within the scope of which Turkey was provided with assistance. Baykurt keeps reminding nationalism from his ideological perspective and the value of national sources including the culture and values. For this reason, he uses the local dialect to emphasize the importance of maintaining Turkish national identity from the risk of dissolution in the American culture. He sees the Marshall Aid as a threat to the national values and independence of the country. In this paper, the major ideas of developmentalism and dependency theories help explore the novel. In the paper, a brief theoretical look at the Marshall Plan and the Party era is presented with a discussion of the novel under the light of these two theories.

Keywords

• Amerikan Sargısı,
• Fakir Baykurt,
• developmentalism,
• dependency,
• the Marshall Plan

References

1. Akçakaya, Umut. (2011). “Sovyet Tehdidinin Türkiye’de Algılanışı (1945-1952)”. Ankara: Hacettepe Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü Tarih Anabilim Dalı Yüksek Lisans Tez (MA Thesis).
2. Amin, Samir. (1974). Accumulation on a World Scale: A Critique of the Theory of Underdevelopment. 2 Vols. New York: Monthly Review Press.
3. Avşaroğlu, Nadir. (2008). Marshall Planı, Amerikan Dış Kredileri ve Türkiye Madencilik Sektörüne Etkileri. file:///C:/Users/Figun/Downloads/MarshallPlanAmerikanKredileriveTurkiyeMadencilikSektoruneEtkileri.pdf (accessed on June 10, 2019)
4. Baykurt, Fakir. (2003). Amerikan Sargısı. Dördüncü Basım, (American Bandage, 4th edition), İstanbul, Adam Yayıncılık.
5. Birinci, Burcu. (2007). “The Marshall Plan in Turkey, a Critical Evaluation of United States’ Interests in the Plan and its Effects on the Republic”, Yüksek Lisans Tezi (MA Thesis). Boğaziçi (Bosphorus) University.
6. Çağrı, Erhan. (1996). Ortaya Çıkışı ve Uygulanışıyla Marshall Planı (Emergence and Implication of the Marshall Plan), Ankara Üniversitesi Siyasal Bilgiler Fakültesi Dergisi, 51(1), 275- 288.
7. Ertem, Barış. (2009).Türkiye-ABD İlişkilerinde Truman Doktrini ve Marshall Planı (Truman Doctrine and Marshall Plan in Turkey-USA Relations), Balıkesir Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü Dergisi, 12(21), 377-397.
8. Gimbel, John. (1976). The Origins of the Marshall Plan. Standford: Standford University Press.

9. Gürel, Pelin E. (2017). The Limits of Westernization: A Cultural History of America in Turkey, Columbia University Press.
10. Hogan, Michael. J. (1987). The Marshall Plan: America, Britain, and the Reconstruction of Western Europe 1947-1952. Cambridge University Press.
11. Huntington, Samuel P. (1997). The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order. New York: Touchstone.
12. Ignatow, Gabe. (2006). Cultural Models of Nature and Society: Reconsidering Environmental Attitudes and Concern. Environment and Behavior, Vol: 38, Issue 4.
13. Johnson, Kelly. (2010). Developmentalism Then and Now: The Origins and Resurgence of an Enduring Grand Theory. Grand Theories and Ideologies in the Social Sciences. ed. Howard J. Wiarda, New York: Palgrave McMillan.
14. Keyder, Çağlar. (2008). Türkiye’de Devlet ve Sınıflar. 13. Baskı, İstanbul: İletişim Yayınları.
15. Reinert, Erik S. (2010). Developmentalism. Working Papers in Technology Governance and Economic Dynamics no. 34. Tallinn University.
16. Santos, Theotonio Dos. (1970). The Structure of Dependence. American Economic Review. Papers and Proceedings, May.
17. Şahin, Serkan. (2014). “Marshall Planı Ekseninde Türkiye.” Karadeniz Teknik Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü Yüksek Lisans Tezi (MA Thesis), Trabzon.
18. Tören, Tolga. (2006). “Yeniden Yapılanan Dünya Ekonomisinde Marshall Planı: Türkiye Örneği.” Marmara Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü Yüksek Lisans Tezi (MA Thesis) İstanbul.
19. Wallerstein, Immanuel. (1974). The Modern World System: Capitalist Agriculture and the Origins of the European World-Economy in the Sixteenth Century. New York: Academic Press.
20. Wexler, Imanuel. 1983.The Marshall Plan Revisited: The European Recovery Program in Economic Perspective, Greenwood Press,
21. Zulkifli, Noraini. (2010). Marxism and the Theory of Dependency, DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.34090.93125,