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ABSTRACT
INCEST IN FOLK NARRATIVES
Abalı, Nefise
Postgraduate, Turkish Literature Department
Thesis Advisor: Prof. Talat S. Halman
September 2011
The aim of this study is to ascertain incest theme in Turkish folk narratives
and to analyse biological and psychological factors and social and cultural perception
of incest phenomenon. In this sense, the incest theme in folk tales, folk stories, poetic
epics, folk songs, threnodies and Turkish poems is the analysis in feminist
perspective by making use of Jung’s archetypal symbolism. In the first section of the
study, Jung’s analytical psychology and archetypes are specified. The ideas of
psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud and Carl Gustav Jung on incest are referred to in the
context of the Oedipus Complex. Sense of mother-son incest set forth in the Dede
Korkut Oğuznameleri is examined while referring to the Oedipus Complex. In the
second section, folk songs, folk tales and stories comprising father-daughter and
father-in-law-daughter-in-law incest motives are analysed. In the third section of the
thesis, the Arzu ile Kamber story which evokes brother-sister incest is assessed. The
last section, deals wise brother-in-law-aunt-in-law and brother-in-law-sister-in-law
incest in poetic epics, folk songs, threnodies and Turkish poems in the context of the
line of descent interrelated by marriage. Incest theme differ according to the types of
folk narratives, and any type of incest is examined within its own type of narrative.
In consideration of folk narratives, the scope of incest is explained through the
effects of Islamic religion and traditions within the framework of social and cultural
structure.
keywords: incest, folk narratives, woman, Jung
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