Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
Milli Folklor, cilt.18, sa.142, ss.39-52, 2024 (AHCI)
It is possible to observe the impact of concepts such as westernisation or modernisation, which define the Tanzimat period, on Ottoman society through the change in entertainment and its spaces, because entertainment is a way of life and a practice of modernity that makes the reflection of modernisation on space visible. The World Fairs held in the second half of the 19th century, which were a way of announcing the products of economic, political and social events such as the Industrial Revolution, the French Revolution and the Enlightenment thought, which were effective in the emergence of the concept of modernisation, to the whole world, offer a suitable environment in which the reflections of the concept of modernity can be observed and therefore inferences can be made about entertainment activities and spaces, which are considered as a practice of modernity. It is seen that the concept of modernity is reflected in Ottoman entertainment activities and spaces in the form of the transformation of traditional styles or their substitution with more western genres: It is known that coffeehouses, which can be considered as an important socialising place and entertainment centre of Ottoman society, offered a wide range of entertainment activities from musical entertainment to traditional folk theatre performances. In the second half of the 19th century, the demand for traditional folk theatre elements decreased as theatre, which was defined as a new genre coming entirely from the West, etc., gained a place in Ottoman social life; in this process, the Tuluat Theatre, which was inspired by the West, emerged. The aforementioned developments in Ottoman entertainment practice are parallel to the differentiation in the entertainment spaces that the Ottomans preferred to include in their pavilions at world fairs. In the second half of the 19th century, the process of representation in which Ottoman modernity can be interpreted through the change in entertainment activities started with musical entertainment in the coffee-house at the 1873 Vienna World Fair, continued with the western-inspired Tuluat Theatre at the 1893 Chicago World Fair and ended with a theatre where operettas were presented at the 1900 Paris World Fair at the very beginning of the 20th century. Since this process is a manifestation of the experiences of various actors including the administration, the intellectuals of the period, the audience, and the entire” society in entertainment events, it also made the Ottoman society's approaches to modernity, that is, Ottoman modernity, observable.