HUMAN BODY IN THE SOPHOCLES’ STAGE OF OEDIPUS

Year 2024, Volume: 64 Issue: 2, 1314 - 1338

Ayşe Yakut , Nalan Buruldağ

https://doi.org/10.33171/dtcfjournal.2024.64.2.15

Abstract

Sophocles, an prominent tragedian poet of fifth-century Athens, is one of the most important representatives of body-centred drama. Sophocles who focused on human and human emotions in his tragedies, used the body in many of his plays especially to perform physical pain on the stage; this technique of Sophocles has been a phenomenon in European literature since the beginning of the 20th centuries. In this context, the tragedy of Oedipus the King is an important example. This study focuses on how Sophocles uses the human body in the tragedy Oedipus the King. Sophocles used the human body in the most crucial scenes where Oedipus, the protagonist of the play, revealed his personality, emotions and status. Sophocles used the human body both in the context of reflecting Oedipus’ physical and spiritual pain and in the description of his emotional states such as anger, shame, sensitivity and compassion. In Sophocles’ Oedipus the often was used body parts are foot, hand and eye. In addition to these, the head was also used, but much lesser. Sophocles made these parts of the human body more visible than ever before and attributed metaphorical value on these parts; thus he kept the tension of the tragedy at its peak and embodied the emotions and perceptions of the characters with their bodies. By means of this method, Sophocles also showed that parts of the human body such as hand and eye can be used not only for sensory purposes such as sight, comprehension and touch, but also as an important way of reflecting emotional reactions in tragedy. Thus, Sophocles both surprised the audience and immortalised his work by re-constructing a well-known myth long before him.

Keywords

Sophocles, Oedipus, Human Body, Foot, Hands, Eyes

SOPHOKLES’İN OİDİPUS SAHNESİNDE İNSAN BEDENİ

Abstract

Beşinci yüzyıl Atinası’nın önemli tragedya ozanlarından Sophokles, beden merkezli tiyatronun en önemli temsilcilerinden biridir. Tragedyalarında insana ve insan duygularına odaklanan Sophokles’in birçok oyununda özellikle fiziksel acıyı sahnede işlemek amacıyla bedeni kullanması yirminci yüzyıldan beridir Avrupa Edebiyatı’nda dahi öykünülen bir olgu olmuştur. Bu bağlamda Kral Oidipus oyunu önemli bir örnektir. Bu çalışmada Sophokles’in Kral Oidipus oyununda insan bedenini nasıl kullandığına odaklanılmıştır. Sophokles oyununun başkahramanı olan Oidipus’un kişiliğini, duygularını, statüsünü ortaya çıkardığı can alıcı sahnelerinde insan bedenini kullanmıştır. Sophokles Oidipus’un hem fiziksel ve ruhsal acılarının yansıtılması bağlamında, hem de öfke, utanç, hassasiyet, şefkat gibi duygu durumlarının dışa vurumunda insan bedenini kullanıma sokmuştur. Sophokles’in Oidipus tragedyasında en sık kullandığı beden parçaları ayak, el ve gözdür. Bunlara ek olarak, daha az olmakla birlikte baş da kullanılmıştır. Sophokles insan bedenine ait bu parçaları hiç olmadığı kadar görünür kılarak ve bu parçalara metaforik anlam yükleyerek tragedyaya özgü gerilimi zirvede tutmuş ve karakterlerin duygularını, algılarını bedenleriyle somutlaştırmıştır. Sophokles bu tekniğiyle ayrıca, insan bedenine ait el, göz gibi parçaların sadece görme, kavrama, dokunma gibi duyusal amaçlarla değil aynı zamanda tragedyada duygusal tepkileri yansıtmanın önemli bir aracı olarak kullanılabileceğini de göstermiştir. Böylece, kendisinden çok önce iyi bilinen bir miti yeniden kurgulayarak hem izleyiciyi şaşırtmış hem de eserini ölümsüzleştirmeyi başarmıştır.

Keywords

Sophokles, Oidipus, İnsan Bedeni, Ayak, El, Göz

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