Display or Representation?: Asiye as a Pornographic Signifier of the Female Body in Epic Theatre

This study offers a comparative analysis of Vasıf Öngören’s epic play Asiye Nasıl Kurtulur and Atıf Yılmaz’s film adaptation of the same title through the framework of feminist theories of visual culture and the aesthetics of epic theatre. Both the play and the film are analysed based on a tension that arises between Brechtian alienation and the erotic exhibition aesthetics of cinema, especially regarding the representation of the female body. The history of the figure of Asiye, situated within patriarchal violence, class-based oppression and gendered public/private spaces, is analysed through the formal and ideological boundaries of representation. Drawing on Judith Butler’s theory of gender performativity, the study examines Asiye’s recurring representations of femininity, while Laura Mulvey’s concept of the male gaze is used to analyse the visual and discursive dominance of the male narrator within the narrative. The boundaries between representation and exhibition, witnessing and voyeurism are discussed in the light of Linda Williams’ distinction between performance and exhibition and Elin Diamond’s analyses of epic theatre. The study critically reconsiders the possibilities of subjectivising the female body and the ethical-political positioning of the viewer.