Melodram ve komedi : Osmanlı'da Türkçe ve Ermenice modern dramatik edebiyatlar
Author
Uslu, Mehmet Fatih
Advisor
Mignon, Laurent
Date
2011Publisher
Bilkent University
Language
English
Type
ThesisItem Usage Stats
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Abstract
Modern theater in the Ottoman Empire had a spectacular development, lead by
Ottoman Armenians, in the 19th century and it drew a large audience. At the same
time many Ottoman intellectuals became playwrights and they produced a great
number of plays. This thesis tries to understand the political and social implications
of dramatic literature by comparatively analyzing plays written in Ottoman Turkish
and Armenian in the period.
The thesis has two main arguments: First, I claim that we can analyze the whole
dramatic-literary area in three genres (melodrama, historical drama, comedy) and
every different generic area discloses and represents a main dynamic in the empire.
Melodramas represent dominant political-moralistic tendencies, historical dramas
show the search for national identity, and comedies disclose developing market
relations and changing economy.
Second, by reading texts in Turkish and Armenian together and comparatively, I
endeavor to understand mutual relations between Ottoman subjects and negotiationconflict
paths these three genres demonstrated. In this perspective, I claim that
melodramas and historical dramas on the side of conflict and comedies on the side of
negotiation disclose an inexorable struggle. This struggle is the evidence of the
empire’s future collapse and the possibility of a peaceful solution at the same time.