Dokuz Eylül Üniversitesi Edebiyat Fakültesi Dergisi

Öz

In this study, it is discussed how shadow play examples belonging to oral culture undergo a transformation at the formal and semantic level in Sinekli Bakkal, and intertextuality is used as an analysis method. However, here, not a specific written Karagöz text, but the basic principles or general features of the Karagöz play are taken into consideration. The first transformation seen formally in the context of intertextuality is the transformation of the shadow play into a novel. This transformation is achieved through contraction in some aspects and expansion in others. When the shadow play is written down and then turned into a novel, there is a narrowing of some of the features offered by the different branches of art (dance, music, etc.). This change reduces the visual aspect of the game, but the content is enriched with some side stories and new characters. Semantic transformation occurs in two ways: narrative and pragmatic. Narrative transformation is achieved by establishing the historical and geographical framework of Istanbul during the despotism period. While the opposition/struggle between the lower and upper classes is the main issue in Karagöz, this turns into the East-West opposition in the novel. This is the first semantically striking change in the novel. Another important transformation is that the novel deals with Sufism, the way religion is perceived and experienced, and therefore different types of clergy. Therefore, a political and philosophical content is added or made more visible to the shadow play, which shows a more social content, with the novel. In the novel, value transformation is also used to achieve semantic change. In the shadow play, Karagöz is portrayed as an uneducated and often unemployed person, while in the novel, his successor, Râbia, is equipped with the opposite characteristics and the main message is changed. Karagöz, the protagonist of the shadow play, comes from the lower class and depends on the neighborhood he lives in. This feature of Karagöz comes to life in Râbia in the novel. In the novel, as in Karagöz, the neighborhood is the main place. Characters such as zenne, dwarf, çengi, roughneck, Frank, immigrant and Albanian from Karagöz's characters are also found in the novel. Music, highlighted among the branches of art in Karagöz, serves as a unifying element and a form of expression.