AI Summary & Key Takeaways
AI InsightWhile for Aristotle, the condition for reaching happiness is to submit to laws and the established order, for Boal, happiness is possible through dialogue.
📌 3 Key Takeaways
Abstract
For centuries, Western theatre has been a field where new possibilities of expression discovered and developed in both practical and intellectual dimensions. Despite these innovative searches, Western theatre has maintained its ties to the Ancient Greek theatre from which it originated. Despite the deep-rooted tradition stemming from Ancient Greek theatre, in the 19th and 20th centuries, new theatre approaches offered a wide range of alternative searches and proposals worldwide. However, in the 21st century, the influence of Ancient Greek theatre on contemporary theatre remains strong. The most important source of this continuing influence is Aristotle's Poetics, one of the fundamental texts on Ancient Greek theatre. The arguments developed by Aristotle in Poetics encompass ethical and political dimensions as well as aesthetic dimensions. Despite the continuing strong influence of Poetics, one of the most important figures in the search for alternatives in the 20th century was Augusto Boal, who challenged Aristotle and put forward a new paradigm. Boal contributed to contemporary theatre by establishing a paradigm beyond Aristotle’s definitions with his Theatre of the Oppressed System. Boal aimed to create responses to experiences of social and political oppression through the means of theatre. Augusto Boal became one of the most influential figures in the theatre in the 20th and 21st centuries through his political actions, educational work, and artistic contributions. The Theatre of the Oppressed system he created serves both as a critical reexamination of the theatre approaches that preceded it and as a catalyst for the need and motivation for a new paradigm in theatre. This study examines the criticisms of the Theatre of the Oppressed system, developed by Augusto Boal, in relation to Aristotle's Poetics. This article, which evaluates the concept of the spectator-actor, aims to clarify the contribution of Boal's critical paradigm to the understanding of theatre. In this article, the critical framework towards Aristotle's Poetics is limited to Augusto Boal's criticism. Therefore, this study focuses on the notion of spectator-actor based on the perspective of Theatre of the Oppressed and does not include a broader ethical, political discussion or an evaluation of Western theatre in general. In this study, which employs a qualitative research approach, Aristotle's Poetics and Augusto Boal's Theatre of the Oppressed texts were comparatively examined. In addition to analyzing foundational texts, which explain Aristotle's Poetics and Boal's Theatre of the Oppressed approach, current theoretical and critical discussions in the literature on the subject were also referenced. The Theatre of the Oppressed System has developed in an environment of dialogue, with contributions from its own audience, or rather, its own spectator-actor. The most important factor behind this is the Poetics of the Oppressed, where the emphasis on dialogue is dominant, with the rejection of Aristotelian Poetics. Instead of adhering to the status quo and obediently continuing the given conditions, Boal, who places the notions of dynamization and dialogue at the center of his understanding of theater, rejects Aristotle's oppressive tragedy system with the Theatre of the Oppressed system and offers sympathy instead of empathy, which is a condition of catharsis, and dynamization instead of catharsis as an alternative. Boal's most revolutionary invention in terms of offering an alternative to the Aristotelian system is to investigate and reveal the possibilities of collective critical thought and collective artistic production with the spectator-actor plane he offers instead of the audience, which is confined to a passive position. In contrast to the Aristotelian system that has continued its function and existence throughout the ages, the system proposed by Boal suggests a different understanding at the ethical, aesthetic, and social levels. Despite this, when the ways of thinking of Aristotle and Boal are carefully considered, the similarities between them emerge: Both have a vision of “good” to which to tend. Just like Aristotle, who argues that things tend towards the ideal substance, Boal also seeks the possibilities of reaching the better, the ideal, not in an impossible universe of ideals, but in this world. The striking contrast between them is clearly seen in the differences of opinion on how to reach the ideal. In other words, what separates Boal’s belief that people and conditions can change for the better from Aristotle’s thinking is fundamentally due to the difference in their understanding of the happiness that is targeted and sought. While for Aristotle, the condition for reaching happiness is to submit to laws and the established order, for Boal, happiness is possible through dialogue.
Özet
Batılı tiyatro düşüncesine kaynaklık eden Antik Yunan Tiyatrosu ve bu tiyatroya ilişkin bilgilerin dayanağı olarak kabul edilen Aristoteles’in Poetika’sı, XXI. yüzyılda etkilerini halen yoğun bir biçimde sürdürmektedir. Poetika'nın bin yılı aşan bir süredir etkisini sürdürüyor olması onun yerine getirdiği işlevin güncelliğini koruması ile ilişkilidir. Poetika'nın güncelliğini koruyan bu işlevini tartışmaya açan bu çalışma, Aristoteles’in Poetika’sını ve onun varlık göstermeye devam eden işlevini Ezilenlerin Tiyatrosu perspektifinden incelemektedir. Bu kapsamda hem Aristoteles’in hem de Ezilenlerin Tiyatrosu sisteminin mimarı olan Augusto Boal’in etik, politik görüşlerinin izi sürülerek karşılaştırmalı bir tartışma yürütülmüş ve benzer sorulara verdikleri farklı yanıtlar saptanmıştır. Bu doğrultuda Augusto Boal’in Poetika’ya karşı çıkma gerekçeleri ve ona bir alternatif önermiş olduğu yeni paradigma irdelenmiştir. Augusto Boal tarafından geliştirilen ve önerilen bu paradigma değişiminin statükoya karşı diyalog önerisi olduğu saptanmıştır. Dolayısıyla bu çalışma iki yaklaşım arasındaki farklılıkları vurgularken aynı zamanda Aristotelesçi Poetika’dan kaynağını alan söz konusu verili koşulların savunulması ile diyalog arasındaki karşıtlığı tartışmaya açmaktadır. Bu bağlamda Ezilenlerin Tiyatrosu’nun seyirci-oyuncu nosyonu temel alınarak Aristoteles'çi Poetika'nın reddinin bir mutluluk arayışı olarak değerlendirilebileceği sonucuna varılmıştır. XX. ve XXI. yüzyıllarda tiyatro anlayışını geliştirdiği eleştirel yaklaşımı ile önemli ölçüde etkilemiş olan Augusto Boal, özgün yaklaşımını ortaya koyarken kendisinden önce geliştirilmiş olan tiyatro yaklaşımlarını eleştirel bir biçimde değerlendirmeye tabii tutmuştur. Dolayısıyla Aristoteles'in Poetika'sı, Augusto Boal'in geliştirdiği sistem içerisinde eleştirilen kaynaklardan biri olmuştur. Bu makalede Aristoteles'in Poetika'sına dönük eleştirel çerçeve Augusto Boal'in eleştirileri ile sınırlandırılmıştır. Dolayısıyla bu çalışma Ezilenlerin Tiyatrosu perspektifini temel alarak seyirci-oyuncu nosyonuna odaklanmakta ve bunun ötesinde, daha geniş bir etik, politik tartışma veya genel olarak Batı tiyatrosuna ilişkin bir değerlendirme içermemektedir.