Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
MILLI FOLKLOR: INTERNATIONAL AND QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF FOLKLORE, cilt.23, sa.90, ss.70-77, 2011 (AHCI)
In this article, it will be argued that, in the study of Turkish folk poetry, the “author-oriented” approach,
which results from the tendencies of written culture and entails determining the “real poet” and thus the “ow-
nership” of folk poems, should be abandoned. Instead, it is urgent that these poems, which are dependent on
oral cultural production, be reconsidered as falling under the context of the Oral-Formulaic Hypothesis. To this
end, this study will take a general look at the oral-formulaic nature of folk poetry, but take as its main object of
consideration the “versions” found in various Turkish folk poems bearing different appellations, such as “Ka-
racaoğlan”, “Kerem”, “Köroğlu”, “Pir Sultan Abdal”, and “Ercişli Emrah”. The aim of this study will thus be to
prove the necessity of directing academic attention towards and focusing it on the Oral-Formulaic Hypothesis,
and thereby on the study of the oral-formulaic nature of Turkish folk poems in Turkish folk studies.