Between theatrical politics and political theater: Late Ottoman theatrical spheres

Abstract

This thesis intends to perceive theater as one of the best stages representing the political tensions, and the intellectual movements of its epoch. In rethinking theater and politics in the late Ottoman Empire, I focused on two fields: Theatricality of the political sphere and the political theater. In the light of the memoirs, newspapers, travel accounts and the play scripts, this thesis scrutinizes the discovery and the manipulation of the popular theater as a political institution. By focusing on the politicization of the theater, which developed within the palatial circles, and the politicization of the repertoire after the Revolution of 1908 in the popular realm, this study examines the instrumentalization of the theater for different political agendas. The first part of the thesis examines the recent historiographical currents that brought history, anthropology and literature closer. The subsequent chapter is a brief discussion of the Ottoman theater historiography. The third part situates theater within the Ottoman 'Westernization' experience. The following chapter scrutinizes the politicization of the theater by the Young Ottomans through the Vatan and Gedikpaşa Incidents. The fifth part discusses the transformation of the theater performances into 'public catharses' with the proclamation of the Second Constitution. And the last chapter scrutinizes the politicization of the repertoire with the newly emerged genre of milli facia, putting the old regime on trial.