An Analysis of “Diegetic People” in Theatre: Five Plays in the Shadow of Dead Fathers / Tiyatroda “Diegetik Kişi”ler Üzerine Bir İnceleme: Ölü Babaların Gölgesinde Beş Piyes

• Published in: Folklor/edebiyat Vol. 29; no. 113; pp. 201 - 218
• Main Author: Can Şen
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Cyprus International University 01-02-2023
• Subjects: diegesis; diegetic person; mimesis; theater; turkish theater; western theater
• ISSN: 1300-7491; 2791-6057
• DOI: 10.22559/folklor.2314

Theatre and the dramatic arts are majorly considered an art of “mimesis” (representation) while also “diegesis” (narrative) is seen in both theatre and other dramatic forms. In the dramatic forms, however, diegesis/narrative remains secondary due to their intrinsic properties. In the study of theatre and the dramatic arts, diegesis mostly appears as a “diegetic space” (mentioned/narrated space) in connection with the use of space. In the present article we will first focus on the concept of diegesis and diegetic space and then attempt to show that characters, just like events, can be included in plays only by narratives rather than necessarily being physically present in the cast. In connection with this, we emphasized that such people, who are not part of the cast but included in the play only through the narrative, should be named as “diegetic person”, similar to the term “diegetic space”. We concentrated on the prominent five plays from Western and Turkish theatre within a timeframe from the Ancient Greeks to the 1950’s to suggest the universality of this approach. In addition to the analyzed plays being prominent works of their periods, the fact that the diegetic people in those plays are dead fathers is another shared aspect of the five plays we have chosen.This study reveals that the existence of diegetic people, who have not been individually addressed up to present day in theatre studies, is parallel with that of the theatre and remains present in the modern theatre as well. It indicates that such people can be just as influential as tangible creatures in plays and accordingly emphasizes that diegetic people should also be taken into account in theatre studies. Keywords: theater, mimesis, diegesis, diegetic person, West