Research Information System
Milli Folklor, vol.23, no.90, pp.70-77, 2011 (Scopus, TRDizin)
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 “ownership” 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 “Karacaoğlan”, “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.