Abstract
A REVIEW ON ALI HAYDAR BEY’S 'SERGÜZEŞT-İ PERVÎZ' AND ‘İKİNCİ ERSAS’ PLAYS KNOWN AS THE FIRST EXAMPLES OF TURKISH TRAGEDY
Theater is based on the animation of everything related to human beings with an artistic re-creation. The theater, which displays social life and human relations in a dynamic way, is an important branch of literature as well as performing arts. Although the history of theater based on the distinction of genres such as comedy and tragedy in the West can be traced back to Ancient Greece, the acquaintance of Turkish theater with different genres is generally based on the 19th century, when a culture and civilization change was experienced by modalling the West on itself. Before that, traditional Turkish theatrical plays based on laughter such as Meddah, Orta Oyun and Karagöz met the needs of the people and the comedy genre has become a tradition while maintaining its importance for centuries.
Tragic has been put up against comic with the plays of Ali Haydar Bey named Sergüzeşt-i Pervîz (1866) and İkinci Ersas (1866), which are written as the genre of tragedy. Ali Haydar Bey, in the preface of Sergüzeşt-i Pervîz, states that he is proud to have given the first example of the tragedy, and despite all the criticisms made about this play, he has written the play named İkinci Ersas, as the second example of the tragedy genre. Ali Haydar Bey has been adopted as the name that opens the doors of tragedy in Turkish theater with a general acceptance. However, whether these examples were written with the full knowledge and understanding of tragedy is a matter open to debate. In this study, the plays of Sergüzeşt-i Pervîz and İkinci Ersas will be evaluated in the context of drama art and evaluated in terms of tragic/dramatic formations.
Keywords
Turkish Theatre, Ali Haydar Bey, Sergüzeşt-i Pervîz, İkinci Ersas, Tragedy, Drama
