LEFTY’İ BEKLERKEN: AGİTPROP’UN ÖNCÜ BİR OYUNU

Year 2019, Volume: 21 Issue: 1, 373 - 390, 30.06.2019

Zafer Şafak

https://doi.org/10.26468/trakyasobed.583335

Abstract

Clifford Odets tarafından 1930’lu yılların Büyük
Buhran döneminde yazılan Lefty’i Beklerken yalnızca Agitprop Tiyatrosu’nun
sembol oyunlarından biri olmakla kalmaz ayrıca seyirci açısından duygusal ve
politik katarsis etki sağlamayı da başarır. Clifford Odets’in tek perdelik
oyunu, eserdeki taksi şoförlerinin ekonomik yönden içler acısı durumunu ve
bazıları geriyedönüşlerle anlatılan ve onları greve gitmeye götüren bir dizi
olayı anlatır. Burjuva tiyatrosu fikrini, uygulamasını ve estetiğini yadsıyan
ve Agitprop özellikleriyle argümanlarını öncelikle ekonomik ve sosyal değişimi
başlatmak için destekleyen Lefty’i Beklerken, ezilen insanların kötü yaşam
koşullarını tasvir ederek ve yozlaşmış sendika ilişkilerini açığa vurarak
insanları harekete geçirmek için çağrıda bulunur. Çalışma, tarihsel ve kültürel
koşulları ve eseri oluşturan dünya görüşünü serimleyip Lefty’i Beklerken oyunu
için teorik bir özet oluşturarak Amerikan Tiyatrosu’nun önemli eserlerinden
birinde Agitprop özelliklerini göstermeyi amaçlar. 

Keywords

Clifford Odets, Lefty’i Beklerken, Burjuva Tiyatrosu Estetiği, Duygusal ve Politik Katarsis

WAITING FOR LEFTY: A SPEARHEADING PLAY OF AGITPROP

Abstract

Waiting for Lefty, which was written by Clifford
Odets during the Great Depression of the thirties, has become not only an
emblematic play of Agitprop Theatre but also it proves to be an emotional and
political catharsis on the part of the audience. Clifford Odets’ one-act play
narrates the story of cabdrivers’ heart-rending economic situation and the series
of actions, some of which are narrated in the form of flashbacks, which lead
them to go on strike. Rejecting the conception, application and aesthetics of
bourgeois theatre and backing its arguments for the instigation of primarily
economic and social change by the aid of Agitprop features, Waiting for Lefty
calls for mobilizing people by collective endeavor through the depiction of the
dismal life conditions of the down-trodden people and corrupt union affairs. By
presenting historical and cultural circumstances and perspective of weltanschauung which shape the play and drawing
a theoretical synopsis for Waiting for Lefty, the study aims to display the
agitprop features in one of the landmark play of American theatre. 

Keywords

Clifford Odets, Waiting for Lefty, Aesthetics of Bourgeois Theatre, Emotional and Political Catharsis

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