Translation as a Form of Social Representation and the Case Of Re-Introducing Karagöz to Turkish Readers: Karagöz Adaptations of Ismayil Hakki Baltacioğlu and Aziz Nesin*
Abstract One of the most striking forms of Traditional Turkish Theatre, namely Karagöz has a significant place in the history of Turkish Theatre. As opposed to the contemporary understanding of Karagöz within the Turkish society that foregrounds the humorous and childish aspects of this theatre form, Karagöz was amongst the sparse ways of criticising the collapsed social system of the Ottoman Empire during the turbulent years of the nineteenth century. The ultimate reason for this current understanding of Karagöz stems from the way that it is presented to Turkish readers. Nevertheless, a brief glance at the particular periods of the history of the Turkish Republic points out a visible change of representing this theatre form to Turkish readers. In The One-party Period and during the years following that period, there was a serious attempt of modernising Karagöz by means of adaptations. Within this context, Ismayıl Hakkı Baltacıoğlu's Karagöz Ankara'da and Aziz Nesin's Üç Karagöz Oyunu suggest themselves as notable examples of these adaptations owing to the hints that they might carry regarding the social dynamics of the 1940s and 1960s respectively. These adaptations, moreover, call for a re-reading from the vantage point of Translation Studies owing to the vital role that Baltacıoğlu and Nesin attribute to the socio-critical aspect peculiar to Karagöz plays in their works.Since any given translation comprises the elements of the society that it belongs to, one could deem Karagöz as a form of social representation thanks to the essential feature of it that offers place for each persona of the Ottoman Society during the course of the performance(s). In this regard, the process of re-introducing Karagöz to Turkish readers by way of adaptations suggests itself as a primary issue to be discussed from the vantage point of the contemporary understanding of translation. Taking this argument as a starting point, this paper aims at re-evaluating Karagöz adaptations of Ismayıl Hakkı Baltacıoğlu and Aziz Nesin from the perspectives that sociology, Translation Studies, as well as Theatre Studies provide. In order to do so, this article discusses Karagöz as a form of social representation. By doing so, this paper attempts to trace the possible change(s) that the traditional understanding of Karagöz plays might have been through in the adaptations of Ismayıl Hakkı Baltacıoğlu and Aziz Nesin with the purpose of shedding light on how these two authors critically engaged with this theatre form in question.
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- ISSN: 1303-8605
- Yayın Aralığı: Yılda 2 Sayı
- Başlangıç: 2002
- Yayıncı: İstanbul Üniversitesi