Ankara Hacı Bayram Veli Üniversitesi Edebiyat Fakültesi Dergisi

Öz

The Karagöz tradition is an ancient tradition that has been maintained for hundreds of years. This tradition, like many other traditions, has changed and transformed within the process. Reasons such as the gradual disappearance of Karagöz performance environments since the last periods of the Ottoman Empire, the assumption of the functions of the artists performing Karagöz in society by other actors (cinema, western theatre, TV, telephone, etc.), and the young generation’s lack of interest in this art have brought about the concern of its extinction, transforming the tradition. Among the basic problems of this tradition are the facts that; Karagöz’s language and text content are not adapted to the present day; children and young people do not have a sense of curiosity towards tradition; Karagöz cannot find a place for itself in formal, non-formal education and informal teaching; artists do not have an environment to transfer this tradition; the tradition is removed from its context with wrong practices and is excessively commercialized; and the master-apprentice relationship is not as strong as it was before. Any event that prevents transfer from generation to generation also affects the tradition. This article focuses on how the apathy of younger generations can be changed with applied folklore approaches, on the fact that we should not see every practice in which the name Karagöz is mentioned as protection (based on the conservation approach of Intangible Cultural Heritage) and on how Karagöz can find new transmitters and performance environments when the tradition is transferred with ‘correct practices’. In the article, past Karagöz practices and today’s Karagöz practices have been compared, based on the findings obtained in the field research. New performance styles of the Karagöz tradition and whether these performances comply with the conservation approach in the Convention on Intangible Cultural Heritage have been discussed. Based on the research, it has been concluded that thanks to the support of the state and the joint work of experts who know the job, performance environments with new Karagöz performers can be found, thus increasing the interest in the Karagöz tradition.