An analysis of the play prefaces at the beginning of the Turkish theatre and its results (1859-1923)

This thesis aims to analyse and arrange systematically the writers who appear as leading figures in Turkish theatre, their opinions on art of theatre, institutional information which came out in our theatre under the light of forewords written on the plays between the years 1859 and 1923.We observe similar forewords written for French romantics? works, which most of the Reorganization and Constitutional Monarchy period playwrights? imitated and their views of the theatre could be observed as introduced under the titles like `preface, declaration of purpose?. In reality, we know that these kinds of forewords are qualified as `manifests / declarations? and take place in novels and poetry likewise in plays.Until today, we have seen that the knowledge and theory of theatre has not been analyzed in detail in an historical process. Our aim is to contribute to the development of our knowledge in regards to the theory of theatre by means of the forewords of the plays written between the years 1859-1923.In the context of this thesis; the forewords of the plays that had not been translated from the Ottoman language to our new Turkish alphabet were analyzed, and we aim to reveal the theoretical information about the history of Turkish theatre and constructing a base related to the theoretical knowledge.