Translation of a Tradition: Elements of Ottoman Popular Theater in the Turkish Translations of Molière in the Tanzimat Era

Abstract

Molière’s plays aren’t composed of homogeneous, single-source, or “original” (original in the sense we would understand the term today) texts. They are built on multi-layered material with an intricate structure. When these plays were first translated into Turkish in the first half of the 19th century, they were translated into a context with a preexisting popular comedy tradition consisting of Karagöz and Ortaoyunu, which were influenced by different theater traditions from various historical periods and cultures. But there are undeniable similarities between Molière’s plays and Ottoman popular theater in terms of the resources they draw from. The translators, adapters or rewriters of Molière into Turkish between 1869-1882 highlighted these parallels between the two theater traditions, choosing as the source text the plays of the French playwright that would be most familiar to Ottoman audiences. They went to considerable lengths to translate these comedies in a way that would keep them familiar to Ottoman audiences who grew up with Karagöz and Ortaoyunu. © 2022, Istanbul University Press. All rights reserved.