Osmanlı-Türkiye Sahnelerinde Moliére Temsilleri: Değişen Alımlama Biçimleri ve Eleştiriler (Molière in the Ottoman-Turkish Stages: The Changing Reception and Critics) (original) (raw)

The research carried out in Turkey so far base the admiration of Molière by the 19th century theater audience in the Ottoman Empire mainly on two factors. First, the themes and characters in Molière's plays are similar to those we encounter in traditional folk comedies, especially in the traditional performance cultures of the peoples of the Mediterranean basin. The second is that authors of Turkish adaptations of Molière texts were Ottoman intellectuals who had knowledge of Western theater and knew the society they lived in, such as Ahmet Vefik Pasha, Teodor Kasap and Âli Bey. As it is apparent that it has a direct connection with the mentioned dynamics, another determinant that needs to be specially considered is acting, actors and staging. This article will be how the Molière's plays were performed both in Ottoman Empire and Republic of Turkey and how these stagings were received and criticized by focusing on the relationship between the stage and the text. Furthermore, how the qualification of the text, which the actor’s performance is built, is formed in parallel with the changing political dynamics and aesthetics in turn of the century will be discussed in detail. In the second half of the 19th century, the transformation process of Molière's adaptations from which one of the important tools in the spread of Western theater, into “unperformable” literary products and placed in “libraries” from the 1930s will be discussed through theater criticism. The search for the “genuine” Molière of the intellectuals of the early Republican period will be discussed in the context of the cultural policies of the period.