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Ayşın Candan: Theatre and Modernity. From the Ottoman Empire to the Turkish Republic, Wien: Hollitzer Verlag, 2024 (Ottomania 13), 172 S., 17 x 24 cm, English, Hardcover

ISBN 978-3-99094-137-9 (hbk) € 45,00
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Ayşın Candan

Theatre and Modernity

From the Ottoman Empire to the Turkish Republic

This study aims to disclose the inner dynamics of the rich and diverse milieu within the Ottoman-Turkish society that created its unique hybrid forms through the scenic arts against an understanding of modernity in terms of a simple import or imitation of Western cultural forms. In the 19th century Armenians pioneered this process with melodramas, necessitating the presence of female performers on the stage; Armenian women thus went onstage with patriotic motives. Among the two leading figures of the Turkish Republic period are Nazim Hikmet, the most prolific but severely censured Turkish dramatist and Muhsin Ertugrul, who founded the subsidised theatres of Ankara and Istanbul. A later phase of modernisation arrives in the sixties with a social awakening towards the conditions of the rural society: Ankara becomes the seat of “popular” theatre after the founding of Ankara Art Theatre, in 1961. Mehmet Ulusoy’s work in France in the 1970–1980s crowns the final synthesis.

Informationen zur Reihe Ottomania

INHALT

INTRODUCTION

MODERNITY

THE OTTOMANS AND THE HISTORY OF TURKS

THEATRE DURING THE OTTOMAN ERA
    The Fruits of Tanzimat: Period of Reform
    The Young Ottomans
    Ottoman Society During the Constitutional Monarchy

ARMENIAN WOMEN’S MOVEMENT FROM TANZIMAT TO
CONSTITUTIONAL MONARCHY
 

MELODRAMA

THE HISTORICAL EMERGENCE OF MELODRAMA
    The Evolution of Melodrama
    Pixérécourt: from Decadence to Revolutionary Morality
    Structural Traits of Melodrama
    Evolution of the Plot and Characters
    An Example: The Two Orphans

ALLEGORY

MELODRAMAS AND MODERNITY
    Tanzimat and the Melodramas

THE ARMENIAN MILLET
    Armenian Modernisation
    Early Theatrical Performances by Armenians

FURTHER WESTERN INFLUENCES
    European Troupes
    The Pashas and The Schools

THE FIRST THEATRE COMPANIES
AND THE PROGRESSIVE STAGING OF MELODRAMAS

THEATRE AUDIENCE AND ETIQUETTE
    Golden Age of Melodrama

MELODRAMATIC ACTING

REPERTOIRE
    Victor Hugo on the Ottoman Stage
    Early Ottoman Drama Inspired by French Theatre
        Namik Kemal
        Semseddin Sami
        Ahmet Mithat Efendi
    An Example: Vatan yahut Silistre (Motherland or Silistria)
    Women Onstage
        Mari Nivart
        Azniv Hrachia
        Siranoush
        As Melodramas take leave of the stage
 

REVOLUTION AND THE AVANT-GARDE

EXPRESSIONISM
    German Expressionism
    The Expressionist Stage and the First Plays
    An Example: Bir Adam Yaratmak (Creating a Man)
    A Young Turkish Actor in Berlin
    Expressionist Drama
    Expressionist Acting
    The Phases of Expressionism
    Directing and Design
    After the Expressionist Movement
    Tracing the Inf luence of Expressionism in Turkey: Muhsin Ertugrul
    The Adventure of Muhsin Ertugrul Determining the Fate of Turkish Theatre
    And the Cinema

THE MEETING OF TWO REMARKABLE CREATORS
    An Example: Kafatasi (The Skull)
    Nazim Hikmet and Theatre
    A Seminal Force: Meyerhold
    Meyerhold and Nazim Hikmet
    Nazim Hikmet’s Plays on Stage
    Experimentation
    Mehmet Ulusoy and Nazim Hikmet