Oğuz Atay
Relativity of Identity for the Intellectual
An example from modern Turkish playwrighting: "Ones Living by Games"*
When it comes to the relativity of identity, it is inevitable to think about the ideology, the very material complex of social codes that provides us both the question and the response: What we are called and us reacting to the call marking the thing we think we are called. But what really matters in most of the modern plays concerning the relativity of identity is the reaction / situation of the individual that happened to notice that such a call could be diverse. So criteria we use to identify ourselves: time, names, social status, gender, ethnicity, age, power, religion, class, etc.; all are under fire by questions which tremble the "strong and reliable" ground we stand on. One could react in so many ways in such a precarious state, but such a confrontation might result mostly in games, memory deconstruction/reconstruction and a painful, cynical sarcasm.
"Ones Living by Games" --subtitled: "tragic comedy"-- is the only play written by famous Turkish author Oğuz Atay. Atay, who had struggled with the idea of "game" and "games people play" for almost all of his life, focuses on a retired history teacher newly enjoying playwrighting. Coşkun Ermiş --meaning "Affectionate Saint" by a word by word translation; Atay's characters, all have sarcastic names marking their characters or state-- has just met a theater company and their leading actor, Saffet encouraging him to write plays about history; page by page, line by line as he writes, games he play increase both in numbers and in depth.
By time Coşkun, living with his wife, her mother and his son, thinks he realizes the truth, the fact that his poor people need to listen to the real history, the real truth and he decides to write such a play instead of wasting time by Napoleon and others like him, but there's not a whole play that came to life but some fragments. On the other hand, he has fallen in love with Emel, leading actress of the theater group, expecting him to create heroic/romantic ways to end facit everyday dullness she lives through. Coşkun, on the edge of discovering a new life(s) and identity/ies, chooses or creates a character instantly and reacts through it whenever he faces a barrier against his will of freedom, initiative and self-determination. All this time, his wife keeps saying similar lines: "Games again? When will you ever stop playing games?" But, he and his son have to keep "playing the game" for the old lady, Coşkun's mother in law, who has been in search of a lost pasha of her teenagehood. Alternately, they become pasha with false moustaches and kalpaks in order to "perform" her wishes.
Coşkun, seeking a masterpiece of truth for his people and a love affair to confirm his freedom, his self-determination, tries to leave the house, but he falls off the stairs. Her wife is right: "I told you Coşkun, you can't do it; you just can't leave. That's it. You can't."
Then, Coşkun, in fact painfully sick, leaves home again and goes to his lover Emel. But there's something, a distance after disappointment, and he leaves for the theater building where he would meet Saffet. During their last conversation he says "big hearts are so weak, I don't know why" and dies. It is Saffet's part, a Shakespaearean way, to explain what happened to all that gathered around. "As you know, he overestimated games, exaggerated them. (...) He died because of his heart. (...) Because games to him were a matter of life or death. (...) Now it's our turn to take him seriously. (...)"
It is much interesting to drill the situation of the individual confronting that identity might be something jointly made up. But, a question still remains: How is such a make up kept persistent?
*"Oyunlarla Yaşayanlar", Oğuz Atay
*"Oyunlarla Yaşayanlar", Oğuz Atay