Representing social order on the stage: an analysis of Şemsettin Sâmi’s plays within the framework of literary genres and themes

Abstract

This thesis examines three plays by Şemsettin Sâmi, Besâ yahut ahde Vefâ (1875), Seydi Yahyâ (1875), Gâve (1876) within the framework of literary genres and themes, in order to reveal their intellectual and social messages and relationship with politics. Sâmi is a Tanzimat intellectual who worked as a clerk, journalist, translator, dictionary writer and novelist. He used the theater as a tool to educate people like many other intellectuals in the Tanzimat period, an era of political and social innovation when Ottoman society had just met with the Western theater. Sâmi’s plays have not been examined as much as the plays of his colleagues, famous names of the era, Namık Kemal and Abdülhak Hâmit. Generally he has not been distinguished as a political play writer. However, in his works by showing class injustice and inequality he makes social criticism through the personal problems and adventures of the protagonists. Moreover, Sâmi’s Albanian origin affected the subjects of his plays. In this thesis, the plays of the author are studied in terms of their associations with melodrama genre which is very suitable for intriguing the audience and making clear and effective statements. The three melodramas studied in this thesis are among the first examples of the Western style Turkish theatre. Şemsettin Sâmi produced purposeful and political plays; suggested solutions for the social problems that he pointed out; expressed the qualifications of “the ideal citizen” and drew a social order representation on the stage.