Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
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THEPUPPETTHEATERIN PLATO'S
PARABLEOF THE CAVE
Although
THECLASSICAL
95.2(1999)119-129
JOURNAL
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Cornford, p. 227.
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17
Tietze, p. 16, n. 2.
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123
and thoughts of revenge against those who wrong him. He does not
have a fixed set of social views, and his morality changes
accordingto the changes in his environment. Other figures in the
troupe are either vulgar braggarts, obsequiousweaklings, foolish
old men, incompetentdoctors, cruel authority figures, and sexually
loose and quarrelsomewomen. The Karagoz "plays" mostly consist
of improvised buffooneryby these types. It can be classified as
satire as a genre, one which involves satirizing anything and
everything. The main charge against this tradition is in fact that
it is entirely without moral purpose or dramaticplot, and that it is
coarse in exploiting human defects and peculiarities for the
purposesof satiric entertainment. The tone is sometimes political,
but often wacky and contemptuousof all established customs. The
puppet theater that falls out of the Karagoz tradition is
entertainmentfor the masses, which consists of shadows of puppets
engaged in verbal jousting, singing, and dancing. Precisely for its
outrageous humor and miscellaneous spoofs that Karagozis also the
embodiment of the ancient Greekcomic spirit.
Given how little we know of its origin it is of courseexceedingly
important not to make any grandiose conclusionsabout the modem
Karagozfor 4th century Athens. And yet Plato's comparisonmakes
it clear that at least something like it did exist in Ancient Athens.
If this is true, then we may be in a better position to explain why
Plato chooses to represent this specific form of theater in this,
what is purportedto be a parable of the effects of education on the
mind rather than a generic referenceto theatrical performance. If
Plato's sole point in the cave parable were that it is easy to
mistake images for reality, then surely even better examples than
shadows would do. It would even be preferable to refer to
skiagraphia and other illusory forms of painting, which Plato
often does, to register his complaints about the deceitfulness of
shadows and inherent inaccuracy of perspective.19 The comedy of
Aristophanes provides corroboratingevidence for my thesis that
something like the Karagoz theater is at play in the analogy of
the cave. For Aristophanic theather reflects the very attitude and
tone of Karagoz-like comedy. To be sure, the origins of Attic
comedy are obscure,but the resemblencebetween it and what we
know of the merry-makingtradition of the Megarian mimic drama
S8Myrsiades,p. 26.
'9 R. 586b-c;Tht.208e;Prm.165c;L.663c;Phd.69b, e.g. Forthe nature and origin
of skiagraphia,
and Greekattitudestoward shadow painting,see Keuls, Ch. 4.
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ASLIGOCER
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ASLIGOCER
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BIBLIOGRAPHY
And, Metin. 1975. Karagoz:TurkishShadowTheater.Ankara.
Annas, Julia. 1981. An Introduction to Plato's Republic. Oxford.
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