Browsing by Subject "Shadow play"

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Open Access
Evliâ's voive the sultan's shadow: fiction in Evliâ Çelebi's Seyahatnâme
(2015-06) Öztürk Bitik, Başak
Despite some views regarding the existence of “untruthful” and “fabricated” historical data in Evliyâ Çelebi’s Seyahatnâme, this study puts forward that fictitious tales in the Seyahatnâme are constructed deliberately with the use of certain techniques and methods. By using close reading, Evliyâ Çelebi’s stories on Ottoman sultans are reviewed with their historical background. Research carried on several references, including Peçevî’s History which is frequently cited in the Seyahatnâme, revealed that Evliyâ constructed certain historical events as the way he “wanted” them to happen. Throughout Evliyâ’s work, an “ideal” Ottoman sultan image is depicted regarding several issues; from relations between the Palace and the Bektaşî, Mevlevî, Gülşenî, Melamî leaders and other religious orders whom Evliyâ regard as miraculous, to the propriety of building a sultan mosque. Examples have been found in the Seyahatnâme, where contradicting acts and behaviours of the sultan’s with this image are “corrected” or criticized by fictitious stories. Although there is coherence and consistency in the sultans’s tales throughout the ten volumes of the Seyahatnâme, it has been identified that certain changes and additions were made to some stories depending on the context. Evliyâ Çelebi, like a shadow play puppeteer, with his choices such as adding details and highlighting when or who gets attention in his text, turns a one dimensional Karagöz stage into a multi-dimensional literary masterpiece that is the Seyahatnâme.
Open Access
The tradition the political ideology invented : Karagöz
(2008) Güven, Oğuz
Richard M. Dorson coined the neologism "fakelore" in 1950 for the inauthentic products which don't occur in oral tradition and which aren't obtained during a fieldwork. He claimed that the inclusion of these inauthentic products in folklore as if they were genuinely traditional would harm folklore studies. Many articles were written on this issue following Dorson's argument and different neologisms such as "the invention of tradition", "pseudo folklore" and "folklorismus/ folklorism" were coined due to varying approaches. "Fakelore", which was conceptualized by folklorists like Dorson, Dundes and Fox can be utilized to comprehend the seven Karagöz plays which were written by writers commissioned by C.H.P. (Republican People's Party) in 1941. A study like this indicates that the Turkish shadow play Karagöz which is an important cultural heritage was inoculated with the dominant ideology of the era and that an invented tradition was offered to the society. The plays ordered by C.H.P. caused a significant change in the characters, the texture and the function of Karagöz, the history of which extends to the 16th century. The aforesaid seven plays supply a profitable research area for folklorists who will study fakelore in Turkey.