From cocoon to carnival: The transformation of the absurd theatre tradition and grotesque aesthetic in Turkish theatre through the example of “Kozalar”

Abstract

This study aims to analyze Adalet Ağaoğlu’s play Kozalar by considering it in the context of the formal transformation of absurd theatre in Türkiye and the representation of grotesque aesthetics on the female body. Kozalar is a text written in the political oppression, social anxiety and individual alienation environment of the 1970s, and carries the miscommunication, fears and identity crises of petty bourgeois women trapped in the patriarchal order to the stage with an absurd language. In this context, the study opens up for discussion the process of reproducing absurd theatre in Turkish theatre literature and how grotesque aesthetics come into play in this process. The article first examines the birth of the absurd in Europe and how it changed form in historical-social conditions in Turkey; then, it theoretically analyzes the play Kozalar through basic concepts such as grotesque/carnivalesque body, norm violation, multilingualism and childishness. This analysis, based on the views of Mikhail Bakhtin and Wolfgang Kayser, makes visible the relationship between grotesque aesthetics and the female body, class criticism and the patriarchal structure. Finally, through the play Kozalar staged by Ayşenil Şamlıoğlu, how grotesque aesthetics are embodied in the stage language is analyzed. The main claim of the study is that Kozalar is not merely an extension of the Western-origin absurd theater tradition; on the contrary, it offers a new form of expression by being articulated with local cultural dynamics and the miniature and typecast aesthetics of traditional Turkish theater. Grotesque narration is not only a visual form, but also the physical representation of the repressed, the violation of social norms and the aesthetic expression of transformation. In this respect, Kozalar is a strong example of the local transformation of the absurd in contemporary Turkish theater and the unique relationship it establishes with grotesque aesthetics.