Karagiozis

Karagiozis (Greek: "Καραγκιόζης", from Turkish: "Karagöz") is a shadow puppet and fictional character of Greek traditional folklore inspired from an Ottoman Turkish counterpart who was known as "Karagöz". He is the main character of the tales narrated in the Greek theatre of shadows. "Karagöz" in Turkish means 'black-eyed', and it is the origin of this character's name.

Origins

The art of the Theatre of Shadows was originally oriental. Today scholars generally consider the technique of a single puppeteer creating voices for a dialogue, narrating a story and possibly even singing while manipulating puppets, an Indonesian invention.

There are several stories of how shadow theater was established in Asia Minor. Some believe the Turks were influenced by the Gypsies who came from India, while others claim that they were influenced by the Chinese at the time when the Turks were still nomadic tribes, still others argue for a Mediterranean origin in the Egyptian shadow puppet tradion. Whatever the case, it is worthwhile to mention that regardless of religious restrictions, shadow theater became more widespread around the 16th century among the Muslim Turks.

Originally, his popular appeal was his scatological language and protruding phallus. It is still performed in Turkey, especially during Ramadan celebrations, under the same name.

Karagiozis seems to have come to mainland Greece, probably from Asia Minor (Anatolia) in the 19th century, during Ottoman rule. Karagiozis was hellenized in Patras, Greece in the end of 19th century by Dimitrios Sardounis alias "Mimaros", who is considered the founder of modern Greek shadow theater.

The genre became a fully integrated, though adapted, amongst the Greek population. But there are several legends as well as studies surrounding Karagiozis's arrival and subsequent popularity in Greece. Some stories say that Greek merchants brought the art from China and others say that it was a Greek who created the "legend" during Ottoman rule for the entertainment of the sultan. Yet others believe that it originated from real events involving two masonry workers named Karagöz and Haci Ivat (pronounced Hadji Ivat) working in the construction of a mosque in the city of Bursa in early 14th century.

cenario

Karagiozis is a poor hunchbacked Greek, his right hand is always depicted long, his clothes are botched, and his feet are always bare. He lives in a poor cottage with his wife Aglaia and his three boys, during the times of the Ottoman Empire. The scene (called Karagoz Perde) is occupied by his cottage in the left, and the Sultan's Palace (Sarayi) on the far right.

Because of his poverty, Karagiozis uses mischievous and crude ways to find money and feed his family.

Students of folklore divide Karagiozis' tales in two major categories: the 'Heroics' and the 'Comedies'. The Heroics are tales based on tradition or real stories involving the times under Ottoman rule, and Karagiozis is presented as a helper and assistant of an important hero.

Puppeteers devise their own original tales, however there are many 'traditional' tales that have descended orally from earlier puppeteers and are accepted as 'canon' with slight alterations between the players. Most of them are formulaic and have the following layout (but with a wide improvisional variety), and often involving interaction with the audience:

#Karagiozis appears in the scene with his 3 sons dancing and singing. He welcomes the audience [http://farses.poulametrela.com/arxeia52/karagiozis.mp3] and has a comical dialogue with his children. He then enters his cottage
#The Vizier or a local Ottoman lord reports that he has a problem and needs someone to perform a deed
#Hadjiavatis obeys and starts announcing the news (usually a singing sequence) until Karagiozis hears about it
#Initially annoyed by Hadjiavatis' shouting, he finds it's an opportunity to gain money (either by helping the Vizier or not) and sometimes asks Hadjiavatis to aid him.
#Karagiozis either attempts to help the Vizier or fool him. The regular characters (see below) appear one at a time in the scene (they often appear with an introducing song which is standard for each of them); Karagiozis has a funny dialogue with them, mocks them, fools them, or becomes annoyed and ousts them violently.
#Finally, Karagiozis is either rewarded by the Vizier or his mischief is revealed and he's punished.

Some of the most known tales are:
*Alexander the Great and the accursed snake
*Karagiozis the doctor
*Karagiozis the cooker
*Karagiozis the senator
*Karagiozis the scholar
*Karagiozis the prophet
*Karagiozis the fisherman
*Karagiozis and the gorilla
*Karagiozis and the ghost

The characters

*Karagiozis, is a trickster poor Greek man whose sole interest is sleep and eating. Socially, he is in closer relation to Hadji Ivat (Greek: Hadjiavatis) than any other characters, and often he is informed by him, sometimes they cooperate in business, but sometimes Hadjiavatis is a victim of Karagiozis' tricks.
*Kollitiria (Κολλητήρια), Karagiozis' three kids. Some versions give their names as Kollitiri, Kopritis and Birikokos.
*Aglaia, (Αγλαΐα) Karagiozis' wife.
*Hadjiavatis (Χατζηαβάτης), (the Turkish counterpart is Hacivat) he is Karagiozis' friend and sidekick, an honest and serious figure but often ends up being wrapped up in Karagiozis' schemes. He has a tendency to flatter the powerful and his name in Greece is associated with the "eternally compliant person towards the occupying and dominant establishment".
*Barba Yorgos (Μπάρμπα Γιώργος, "Uncle George"), he represents the original Greek from the mountains, uncontaminated by urban trends; he is usually on some business related visit in the lowlands, he is a Vlach from Rumeli in mainland Greece, always depicted broad built with traditional outfit, is crude and very strong. Even though he believes his nephew to be a "lupoditis" (crook pronounced in the Roumeliot fashion), he helps him out and beats all the opponents black and blue with his staff.
*Stavrakas (Σταύρακας), whose puppet is the only one with a long independent arm, like Karagiozis. He represents the "mangas" culture prevalent in Pireus and the Rebetiko tradition. Karagiozis usually teases him.
*Sior Dionysios (Σιορ Διονύσιος), an Italianate gentleman from Zakynthos of imagined aristocratic stock. Faithfull to his Ionian Islands origin, he sings "cantades" and speaks the Ionian Greek dialect with the appropriate accent.
*Morfonios (Μορφονιός), a European bred softie; he is very ugly with a huge head with an extremely large nose; however, he considers himself to be handsome and keeps falling in love. He often exclaims a sound like "whit!"
*Solomon (Σολομών), a usually rich Jew, one of the less known characters.
*Vizier (Βεζύρης), also called Pasha (Πασάς) in some versions, he is the dominant figure of the occupying side and lives in the Sarai. He is usually the beginning of each new tale, by announcing trials, deeds, tests etc to which Karagiozis always decides to become involved.
*Fatme (Φατμέ) is the Vizier or Pasha's beautiful daughter.
*Veligekas (Βελιγκέκας), an Albanian guard of the Sarai, often hits Karagiozis. He is the executive arm of the Pasha.

Some players have introduced other characters, like Karagiozis's old father and Nontas, Stavrakas' friend.

The puppets

All the figures that represent the characters of the shows are two dimensional and designed always in profile. They were traditionally made from camel skin, carved to allow light through the image, creating details, but are today most often made of cardboard. Traditional puppets gave off black shadows against the white screen, but some more recent puppets have holes covered with colored silk or plastic gel materials to create colored shadows. The torso, waist, feet and sometimes the limbs, were separate pieces that were joined together with pins. Most figures were composed of two parts (torso and legs) with only one joint to the waist. Two characters, the Jew and Morfonios had joints in the neck, and had a flexible head.

They were moved with a stick attached to their 'back', except in the case of the figure of Karagiozis, Stavrakas and a few other characters whose arms or other limbs required separate movement. The 'scene' was a vertical white parapet, usually a cloth, called "mperntes" (from Turk. 'perde', curtain). Between the figures and the player (who was invisible), were candles or lamps that shed light to the figures and made their silhouettes and colours visible to the audience through the cloth.

Modern incarnations

Conrad, also known as "Karaghiosis", the protagonist of Roger Zelazny's "...And Call Me Conrad" (also known as "This Immortal"), which won the 1966 Hugo Award for Best Novel, is partially inspired by this character.

In Greek daily speech, the name Karagiozis is also used as an insult more or less like "clown". Puppeteers complain about this, saying that while Karagiozis can be violent, mischievous, a liar and an anti-hero, he is also good-natured and faithful, so his name should not be used as an insult.

During the decade of 1980, Greek Television had Karagiozis shows on a weekly basis. These shows had more modern and educational themes, like for example Karagiozis living some myths of Greek mythology or visiting the moon and other planets. Some of these episodes were either live with an audience, or filmed especially for the TV show and contained scenes that required editing or special effects.

There have been several recent attempts to make Karagiozis incarnations in comic books. [http://www.retromaniax.gr/vb/attachment.php?attachmentid=613&d=1219947763] Since the 2000s, Karagiozis is not so popular as a choice of recreation for young kids and the number of puppeteers has diminished, but remains a significant and well known folkloric figure. Today, he is performed mostly in folk feasts or festivals and on national Greek television. There are also occasional tours in the Greek diaspora.

See also

*Karagöz and Hacivat, the Turkish analog
*Punch and Judy, an English incarnation of Karagiozis

External links

* [http://www.karagkiozis.com/ www.karagkiozis.com] Greek Theatre of Shadows, Panos Kapetanidis
* [http://www.karagiozis.gr/ "ATHANASIOU"] Greek Shadow Theater Group of Practitioners, Mosxato, Athens
* [http://www.karagiozismuseum.gr/en/ Spathario Museum] Museum of Shadow Theatre, Maroussi, Athens
* [http://www.kostasmakris.gr/ The Shadow Theatre of Kostas Makris] Greek Shadow Theatre puppeteer
* [http://www.photius.com/thus/karagiozis.html General information] Extensive article about Karaghiozis
* [http://karaghiozis.net/ Cooperative site of puppeteers]
* [http://www.hacivatkaragoznedenolduruldu.com/ Who killed Hacivat and Karagoz ?] A Turkish Film
* [http://www.karagoz.net/ Turkish Karagoz]
* [http://www.anagnosis.gr/index.php?pageID=142&la=eng The Karagiozis Puppet Theatre]
* http://www.karagozevi.com/?d=golge_oyunu.html