If I Were the General Director (of the Archives)

One of the things I'm trying to do right now as part of the book project is figure out the landscape of writers and newspapers that constituted the popular press (public culture) in Istanbul during the 1950s. [If anyone has written a social history of the Istanbul press during this period, I'd love to figure this out.] Most of what seems to exist - at least in English - focuses primarily on key figures: Necip Fazıl, etcetera.

But right now I'm focusing on a series of articles written by Ziya Şakir in the 1950s. I turned to the archive of Şehir University (searching for 'Ziya Şakir'), which led me to this:

Mahmut Yesari, "If I Were the General Director", Taha Toros Archive, Sehir University

*No* idea what this is - but a quick scan suggests that it's Yesari's satirical commentary about this fascinating world that exists at the intersection of bureaucracy (here, the director of the archives) and a literary world. And he's not alone here - I think of the hints that exist in the work of someone like Orhan Veli [although he left his position in the state institution]. But what's also key - I think - about this clipping is the way that it signals debates about how the history of Istanbul, the history of the Ottoman Empire should be written in the 1940s and 50s.

Sigh. Back to work.