Grotesque discourse in theatre and its contribution to Turkish playwriting

As many of the outstanding scholars of theatre have pointed out, the grotesque is a concept with tendency towards the sense of uncanny, the magical, the exaggeration, the anomaiity, and, the integrity of joy and fear on varying degrees. Yet, there is an agreement among them that the concept is defined more extensively through the corporeal degradation and the categorical transgression. In the carnivalesque grotesque literature, including traditional Turkish theatre, take place the freaks (i.e., jokers, idiots, dwarfs, hunchbacks and "curcuna" dancers) as grotesque figures that interfere relations and exchange among the categories and that do not participate production and reproduction cycles of the establishment. The integrity of life and death, joy and sorrow, body and speech in the archaic forms of thought, and/or belief may explain the underlying constructs of the grotesque thought, and spontaneity of our response to grotesque literature. In this dissertation, the emphasis on degradation and categorical transgression underlines the significance of psycho-analysis and historical materialism that deal with the process of individualization of humankind, and suggests the examination of concepts of the unconscious/speech and praxis in the context of grotesque. Beyond the idea of victorious folk laughter by Bakhtin, the relationship of the modem grotesque which uses the component of fear prominently, with the concepts of mechanization / bio-mechanical and alienation is considered. Among the tendencies of Turkish playwrites, I consider three main sub categories according to their rendering toward their own works in grotesque technique/style: those who carry on carnivalesque excitement, those who keep a distance between themselves and their works, and, those who define themselves some sort of freak. In the conclusion, I argue the potential of the grotesque to offer new perspectives for Turkish playwrites, actors and actresses, and, stage designers.