Karagöz Co-Opted: Turkish Shadow Theatre of the Early Republic

During the early Turkish republic karagöz shadow theatre’s Ottoman patterns were transformed. Reformers attempted to restrict coffeehouses where the art had flourished and developed written texts to replace the improvised practice of the past. They sponsored performances in government-supported community centers and created shows to promote government policies. The efforts meant that an art, which had grown from lower-class satire of the elite was purged of obscene elements, characters were changed to conform to modern ideology, and government control was asserted on what had been a domain of free speech. It is possible that the efforts to restructure the once vibrant art helped hasten its decline. Serdar Öztürk is an assistant professor at Gazi University, Faculty of Communication. In 2005, he published a book (During the Early Republic Era: Cinema, Reception, and Politics [Erken Cumhuriyet Döneminde Sinema Seyir Siyaset]). His dissertation on coffeehouses in the Turkish Republic (1930–1945) was published in 2006 (The Coffeehouse and Power in the Republic Turkey [Cumhuriyet Türkiyesi’nde Kahvehane ve I . ktidar]). He has published extensively in other formats about social and cultural topics.