Existentialism in Turkish theater

The first effects of existentialism in Turkish literature began with the publication of articles introducing the trend in newspapers and magazines in the 1950s. Existentialism is not with scientific writing as in other philosophical movements; It has emerged with literary text types. Therefore, the relationship that existentialism has established with literature is stronger than other philosophical movements. Its influence in our literature has increased especially in the 1960s and 1970s, and it continues today. In our study, we tried to show that the existentialism movement, which has an effect especially in literary genres such as story, novel and poetry, has an effect on the works written in the theater genre by the writers who consciously prefer this trend in other text types. Alienation, loneliness, suicide, which are the basic topics of existentialism, and the effects of modern life on human beings appear as the main subject and theme in the texts we have examined. The basic values of existentialism appear in the theater texts written, in the dialogues of the text heroes by using the possibilities of the theater genre, in the explanatory sections where the moods of the heroes are told, and in the decoration arrangements. In the first part of the thesis, after focusing on how the existentialist movement emerged in Turkish literature and how its effects occurred, it was tried to show the effects of Bilge Karasu, Güner Sümer and Oğuz Atay on their theater genre works. The primary sources in our study are the printed theater texts of the authors. Based on these texts, the effects of existentialism in our theater have been tried to be determined. Key Words Bilge Karasu, Güner Sümer, Oğuz Atay, theater, existentialism.