Narrative Strategies In The Plays “Asiye Nasıl Kurtulur?” And “Fehim Paşa Konağı”

This article examines the role of narrative in theater, tracing its evolution from traditional structures to contemporary forms and highlighting its theoretical and practical significance. Since Aristotle’s Poetics, classical theater has prioritized mimesis over diegesis, often minimizing the function of direct storytelling in favor of enacted representation. Within this framework, the audience was expected to experience the dramatic action as if it were reality, while narration was relegated to a marginal role. However, the twentieth century introduced a fundamental shift. Brecht’s theory and practice of Epic Theater reintroduced narration not as a supplementary element but as a central device designed to disrupt dramatic illusion, expose the mechanics of representation, and encourage spectators to adopt a critical rather than passive stance. Rather than being confined to an ancillary role, narration in contemporary theater functions as a structural and dramaturgical tool. It mediates between storytelling and performance, shaping both the rhythm of the play and the interpretive possibilities available to the audience. Historically, narrative devices such as the chorus in Ancient Greek drama already demonstrated how narration could frame, comment upon, or even contest stage action. Modern and postmodern plays, however, have expanded this function by assigning narrators explicit roles that directly address the audience, guide interpretation, and foreground the constructed nature of theatrical illusion. Through an analysis of Vasıf Öngören’s Asiye Nasıl Kurtulur? (How Can Asiye Be Saved?) and Turgut Özakman’s Fehim Paşa Konağı (Fehim Pasha Mansion), this study explores how heterodiegetic, homodiegetic, and metatheatrical narrators operate within performance. It argues that narration shapes theatrical experience, alters the dynamics of audience engagement, and redefines the narrative strategies of contemporary drama, thereby revealing its enduring significance as both an aesthetic and ideological practice.