The role of the theatre in the construction of state ideology

Abstract

This dissertation examines how theatrical works written during the period of Halkevleri (People’s Houses) functioned to communicate Kemalist ideology to the public and investigates the particular role of these plays in the transformation of social consciousness during the establishment of the modern nation state. For Kemalism, self-describe through its core principles of republicanism, nationalism, populism, statism, secularism and revolutionalism, the 1930’s was a period in which it became clear that a reform movement could not be fully successful or long-lived without public support. Economic, political and social developments both in Turkey and abroad made clear the necessity for Kemalism to seek public support and to organize this support through rapid institutionalization. In this period the Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi (Republican People’s Party) served as a critical bridge between the public and Kemalist ideology. A decision was taken to close all non-governmental organisations and associations active at the time and to establish Halkevleri as official party organs. During the rise of the modern nation state, Halkevleri functioned in multiple domains in order to educate the public in line with the principles of Kemalist ideology and to encourage the public to embrace these principles. In addition to the fields of language and literature, sports, history, and the arts, theater played a particularly important role in 1930’s Turkey at a time when less than twenty percent of the population was literate. The government capitalized on the accessability and persuasiveness of theater in its attempts to gain public support for Kemalist ideology. This period saw a flourishing of scriptwriting in line with explicit rules stated by the directives of Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi and Halkevleri. Much effort went into harnessing the persuasive powers of theater as a means of propaganda when attempting to garner support for nationhood and raise consciousness of the role of the citizenry in a unified nation state. Over a hundred plays were written on the occassion of the tenth anniversary of the founding of the Republic of Turkey adressing the Turkish History Thesis and Kemalism’s village development projects in the hopes of getting broad based grassroots support for Kemalist ideology.