LOCAL CHARACTERISTICS
HANDICRAFTS
Situated on the Silk Road and being the first capital of the Ottoman Empire,
Bursa is an important cultural centre. Some of the handicarfts representing the
old skills are still practiced in the region. The most well-known are cutlery
making, rawhide sandal making, wickerwork, harness making (production and
repair of horse harnesses), saddle making and most important of all, tile
making and silk production.
KARAGOZ PLAY
The “shadow play” of Turkish popular theatre is known as Karagoz and its
name is derived from the name of the chief hero of the plays. Its origin goes
back to 700 years ago and the primary characters, Karagoz and Hacivat , are
believed to have been mansonry masters employed in the construction of the Ulu
Mosque.
The play consists of 4 parts. The mukkaddimeis the introduction of the
plot, where invariably the contrasting of Karago and Hacivat end up in a fight
The muhavere is the second part and mainly consists of rapid dialogue and
bitter wordplay between the characters, thereby developing the plot.
The fasil
the third part, where other characters are introduced. And “ bitis” is finale
,where dialogue and fighting is mainly again between Karagzoz and Hacivat. The
other characters usually include types such as : TuzsusCelebi ( a handsome and well to do youth who smooth
–talks the ladies), Matiz ( a drunkard ), Beberuhi ( a playful mentally retarded dwarf), Arnavut( an
Albanian ); Tahudi ( a Jew); Cerkez ( the characassian); Kurt ( a Kurd); Laz (
a Lazi) ; Tiryaki ( an opium addict, always asleep when needed ), and Zenne (
female characters , either young and an eaters , or old and chatterboxes ).
During the play mobbing the mobile figure called “reflector” pressed on the
curtain according to the dialogue and all the different voices, accents and
dialects of the characters are created by only a single artist. The
exaggerations are the principal comedy elements. The play generally has a
deeper mystical or philosophical content and it provides a deniable criticism.
No comments:
Post a Comment