Yaşar Kemal’s novel Teneke centers on the tension between the rising capital-oriented agricultural bourgeoisie and the modern/rational legal bureaucracy in 1950s Turkey. It narrates the struggle and defeat of the idealist District Governor Fikret Irmaklı, who represents rational bureaucracy and fidelity to law, against local elites who effectively nullify laws with national development rhetoric. This study analyzes the novel from a historical-political perspective within Weber’s theory of rational-legal bureaucracy and Mill’s conception of liberalism. It elucidates the mentality of a period in which the state, stripped of its neutral instrumentality, was subordinated to the interests of local elites, through the typology of the submissive official Resul Efendi and the purged idealism of Fikret Irmaklı. Integrating the theoretical framework with case analysis, the study evaluates the novel not merely as an aesthetic object, but as a document that illuminates its period within its historical context, and simultaneously as a field of inquiry where theories of political science and public administration are tested and concretized. It deciphers the mentality of an era in which the state ceased to be a neutral instrument and was subjugated to the interests of local elites-through the typology of the intimidated civil servant (Resul Efendi) and the purged idealism of Fikret Irmaklı. Integrating theoretical framework with case analysis, the study evaluates the novel not merely as an aesthetic object but as a document illuminating its historical context, as well as a field of inquiry where political science and public administration theories are tested and concretized.
Yaşar Kemal, bureaucracy, liberalism, Democratic Party, Max Weber, John Stuart Mill, historical criticism, political reading.