Research Information System
Milli Folklor, vol.11, no.83, pp.54-61, 2009 (SCI-Expanded)
Ziya Gökalp's tales which were published in Küçük Mecmûa, are named as "folk tale" by literature researchers. However, these tales might have changed in some ways when they were being transferred from oral culture to literary culture and they may have lost their oral features at certain levels. Hence, calling these tales "folk tales" will bring some problems. In this study, Gökalp's tale "Kolsuz Hani{dotless}m" has been examined to find out how far this tale differs from its oral sources, the tales of "Merd-i Sâlih" and "Helvaci{dotless} Güzeli" as a result of its transition process. In addition, the author focused on the sociological and ideological dimensions of the changes made by Gökalp while rewriting the tales and the Gökalp's aims for making those changes in the fiction have been discussed. Moreover, intertextual relations between Gökalp's text and its oral sources have been analysed in order to develop a new perspective for evaluation of the texts that have been transferred to literary culture. In conclusion, it has been asserted that calling them "folk tales" is inaccurate. Thus, in the light of Ong's definition of "art epic", the author suggested that these tales should be called "art tales".