![]() ![]() Each play follows a specific structure: the prologue, typically a ghazal-a type of lyrical poem favored by Sufi poets-blessing the sultan, followed by a dialogue of Karagoz and another important character. Most plays center around the action of two friends, the brash but poor Karagoz, forever dreaming of ways to get rich or catch the eyes of beautiful women, and the educated and somewhat prissy Hacivat (sometimes spelled Hajivat). These performances bear several resemblances to Javanese shadow puppetry, the wayang kulit tradition, most recognizably in the practice of having a single puppeteer perform all parts, accompanied by musicians, or in the distorted body types of the characters. Turkish karagoz performances are mentioned by the sixteenth century, though they surely derived from the shadow puppet theatre of China, Indonesia, and Egypt from the thirteenth century (Tietze 1977, 16-17). ![]() As such, the performance karagoz and karagiozis provided a carnivalistic atmosphere where power relations could be inverted and restructured, and they therefore become a way of both resisting and creating oppression within Turkish and Greek society. However, karagoz and karagiozis shows also provided an outlet for the peasant population to define themselves and to criticize the higher classes. Shadow puppet performances also proved popular, and it is through an exploration of one type of shadow puppet show, the Turkish karagoz puppets and Greek karagiozis puppets, that one can see how this specific art form defied the Islamic ban against representations. In Shi'ite populations, the ritual drama of ta'ziyeh was developed and continues to be practiced. Clowning and miming were both practiced in the Islamic world up until earlier this century. In terms of performance, the issue of representation cannot be dealt with so easily, but certain types of theatre thrived within Islamic culture. Because paintings of people, especially Mohammed, were forbidden, much Islamic art tended toward abstract geometrical designs that could not be construed as idols. In many areas, this led to greater creativity. While certainly not the only culture that has disdained pictorial and experiential representations-i.e., pictures and plays-Islamic culture was and continues to be very strict about how representations take place. Most representation is thought of as a form of idolatry, which the Koran explicitly condemns several times. In Islamic culture, representation is a difficult and complex issue. ![]() The author analyzes how these forms of shadow puppetry were used by various audience communities to negotiate and define cultural boundaries and senses of communal identity. This article examines the related shadow puppet traditions of Turkey and Greece, karagoz and karagiozis respectively, relating them to Bakhtin's theories of carnivalistic performance. ![]()
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