A study on early 20th century Tatar drama

Abstract

Drama is a genre which is considered the most difficult among the literary genres and had been hampered by the tsarist regime and puritanic members of religion for years. Drama started to emerge only towards the end of the 19th century, under the influence of the Jadid ideology and the enlightenment movement in Kazan Tatar literature. It reached great success as a consequence of political, national, and cultural changes occurring in the early 20th century and caused the establishment and rapid development of the theater art in that period. The development of the Tatar drama until the September 1917 Revolution is examined under three categories by the experts of the drama genre: The First Period (1887-1905), The Second Period, namely “theatrical” period (1906-1911), and The Third Period (1912-1917). In this study, each period of the Tatar genre of drama in the early 20th century was discussed under a separate heading. The historical conditions of each period, the artistic value of drama artists and their works, the types of conflict constituting the essence of plays, and types of characters were examined. In the context of the topics focused on the drama genre, new forms and subgenres of drama (e.g., melodrama, musical drama, historical drama, psychological drama, romantic drama, revolutionary drama), tragedy, and comedy (e.g., satirical comedy, musical comedy, vaudeville, farcical comedy) were explained along with literary examples. The reflections of the issues of the periods in works of drama and the interpretations of the significant social and national problems of those years by each artist were discussed. Consequently, insights were shared regarding the successes of the art of drama in two decades in the context of style and artisanship.

Keywords

• early 20th century tatar society
• dramaturgy
• drama genres
• artisanship