Ideological Function in the Theatrical Productions of the Early Republican Period

This study examines three theatrical productions about the satire of the previous legal order and which were made written by the state through order and contests in the early republican period. this study aims to reveal how the new republican order made use of the art to disseminate the ideology to the public and to get it accepted. in the early republican period, the theatrical products written to be performed in the rural areas where there was no access to other media tools such as newspaper and journal, aimed to get people adopt the acquisitions of the new period while satirizing the previous situation in the meantime. such theatrical products especially took advantage of the base created by the kadi stories which constitute a figure in the traditional popular culture and could be considered as one of the potential or passive resistance tools of the public against the state authority. in other words, the genre of satire, focused on the injustice of the kadis and anonymized as the “kadi jokes”, is actually based on the injustice of the ottomam kadi and the corruptness of the previous legal order. moreover, impartiality of the judges, generality and rule of law were expressed implicitly in the dramas heralding the established system which was based on the prevention of bribe, corruption, ill-treatment and on the equality of women and men.