writing_womans_lives_symposium_paper_book_v2

and two‐thousand newspaper articles in Spanish for Ecuador’s El Comerico newspaper, Linke was
fortunate to have metamorphosed from a self‐centric agent into a progenitor of justice and a
storyteller of social change across three continents: Europe, Asia and Latin America, 20 documenting
her entire life and those she encountered. Linke suddenly died of a heart attack on a flight from
Athens to London at the age of fifty‐six on 27 April 1963. Her body was not returned to Quito (from
London) until 22 November 1963, the day Kennedy was assassinated. 21
The people of Turkey as Linke’s “fortunate encounter(s)” Acting of her own volition and with no
formal accreditation as a journalist or a prior formal invitation by Turkish officials, Linke arrived in
Istanbul in March 1935, simply curious to learn how Turkey had been successful at nation‐state
development where her Germany had failed. Turkey had implemented etatism to ensure economic
stability and state development under the RPP (Republican People’s Party) in 1932. Linke traveled
across the republic, deep into the heartland, until November 1935. Three works resulted: Allah
Dethroned: A Journey Through Modern Turkey (1937)—translated as Mustafa Kemal Türkiyesi:
Modern Türkiye Seyahatnamesi (2008)—an article “Social Changes in Turkey” (1937) and a chapter
entitled “Turkey” in Hitler’s Route to Baghdad (1939). Apart from the two latter works, Linke’s
autobiographical and inclusive style of multiple voices in her story is distinctly apparent in the work.
This article focuses specifically on her autobiography.
Interpreting her text, I read between the lines of Allah Dethroned to discover Linke’s “lively
intellect,” with a new set of eyes earned from Stolper on political economy, which offers an insideroutsider
insight to really see the efforts, aims and struggles of the people of Turkey to strive and
flourish in an extremely problematic and economically challenging interwar period. As Linke had
experienced American imperialism firsthand in Germany she understood well the prejudices Turkey
faced: once identified as the “sick man of Europe.” 22 Respecting Turkish efforts to start anew, she
juxtaposed contradictory statements in her texts as a literary device, in an attempt to jar her English
readers out of their complacency and prejudice about other cultures and nations. Beginning with her
first impressions of Istanbul she wrote, “Most of us remain faithful to the fairy‐tales we heard in our
youth,” 23 implying Turkey was perceived by what Europeans “learned” in fairy‐tales—i.e., Turkey as
Orient. A few sentences later she wrote, “...untaught by experience, we are disappointed,” 24
provoking the thought, “experience” may teach us otherwise, to “unlearn” the “learned.”
In her encounters with workers, peasants, state officials, teachers, engineers, doctors, men,
women and children across all socio‐economic strata in Turkey she discovered herself to be
somewhat “utterly identical” with them. Travel by train then truck kamion as far as Hopa and Kars on
the Russian border and later around central and western Anatolia, she witnessed how they (in this
case a group of peasants) overcame obstacles. Of their pragmatic but inclusive and jovial demeanor
she wrote:
By a kind of intuition, they knew soon enough what sort of person I was, and once they
had made up their minds, and approved of me, I was free of all further worry [...] A smile,
a pleasing word in the Turkish language, a laugh at my own awkwardness and ignorance,
and the excitement my presence meant for them, were reward enough for their
generosity. They felt that I had delivered myself into their hands and whatever happened
they were not going to let me down. 25
Linke inadvertently captured in her writings Trotsky’s concept of “uneven and combined
development,” whereby older forms or practices exist alongside new forms creating a discrepancy
and unevenness in development. Unfortunately, the global Depression challenged and limited a
possible even development across the nation, thus contradicting their aims. Meeting with an official
Linke was told, “The great aim of our Government is to open up those parts of Anatolia which were
completely neglected under the Sultans. We want to give an equal chance to all parts of the
country.” 26 Linke’s additional notes at the end of chapters are telling, noting prices fell on the stock
market by fifty percent between 1931 and 1934, driving down wages and limiting Turkish exports.
She visited a state‐owned tobacco factory in Samsun, 27 meeting the women workers and the mayor
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