Milli Folklor

Öz

In societies where shadow play has been performed, the creation of this art in oral memory has raised the question of where and when shadow play was first introduced to the world. Several theo-ries have been raised on this subject, but even the strong arguments that have been asserted about its origin have not been conclusively clarified. In Anatolia, it has become very difficult to establish the date and place where the art of Karagöz appeared which can be traced back to ancient times with its history based on myths, due to the uncertainties brought about by oral environment. The art of Karagöz was brought to Istanbul—the capital of the time— by the Empire in 1517, and so this play, which already existed in the memory of the people in Anatolia, adopted an official identity as of this date. After the Egyptian expedition led by Sultan Selim I to Egypt, the Egyptian Karagöz masters and their performance styles were soon replaced by Karagöz masters trained in Istanbul, and Karagöz, which was shaped by its own identity, portrayed Istanbul and the people of Istanbul as a small pro-file of Anatolia. The rumors that Karagöz appeared in Bursa and the Karagöz masters who were trained in many different cities with the popularity of Karagöz that surpassed Istanbul over time indicate that this play was not only performed in Istanbul but also in many cities of Anatolia. One of the cities where the play Karagöz was staged was Kars, and this art branch has found an important representation area for itself due to the Karagöz performers trained in this region. This study exam-ined the script “The Play Han of Karagöz,” which was compiled by Z. Mahir Baranseli and İlhan Başgöz from Yadigâr Şimşekoğlu at the Kaleiçi neighborhood of Kars in 1967 and published in five series between February and June 1968 in the 43rd, 44th, 45th, 46th, and 47th issues of the maga-zine—Kars Eli. Although the play reflects the general lines of the Karagöz art, it has acquired local characteristics with the style and language of Şimşekoğlu, and many elements pertaining to the region have been added to it. Except for Karagöz and Hacivat— the main characters in the plot—synthesized by the Karagöz master by inspiration from the plays he knew, other characters were completely fictionalized as local figures, and the technique and music of the play also progressed along local lines. This study discussed the elements of verbal texture, place- performance, and per-former in the Play Han of Karagöz performed by Yadigâr Şimşekoğlu—the last Karagöz master of Kars—in the context of Performance Theory. The texture characteristics of the play, the place-performance interaction, the reflections of the socio-cultural and economic environment in which the performer was raised on his performance style, and the effects of the dynamics of the audiences, such as age, educational background, gender, etc., on the performance, as well as the performer’s performance were emphasized, and the place of the Play Han of Karagöz, a local play, in the tradition of Karagöz—was discussed. Furthermore, the plot, episodes, characters, technique, and music of the play were discussed in the context of performance, and the traditional and local elements of the art of Karagöz, embodied by this play, were identified, and these elements were compared.