AN EVALUATION ON NASREDDIN HODJA STORIES IN THE LIGHT OF WILLIAM BASCOM’S “FOUR FUNCTIONS OF FOLKLORE

WILLIAM BASCOM’UN “FOLKLORUN DÖRT İŞLEVİ” IŞIĞINDA NASRETTİN HOCA FIKRALARI ÜZERİNE BİR DEĞERLENDİRME

Abstract

Jokes or humorous anecdotes are products of folk literature in oral tradition existing over a wide geographical area for thousands of years. While some of the jokes originated in Central Asia, some of them reached today from Islamic culture and from the ancient cultures of Anatolia. Besides Turkish culture, the elements of Arabic, Persian, and Anatolian culture began to appear in Turkish humorous anecdotes particularly after the 15th century. Although jokes seem to belong to individuals, in fact they belong to the whole society. Jokes can be set on one or more events. There are different people in each event. The relationship between the people and people and society lie in the centre of the jokes. The subject matters of the tales include discrepancies in community life and conflicts emerging from differences between ideas and behaviours. Jokes function like a mirror which reflects the culture of the society. They are like a perfect painting created by an artist. Each story gives a lesson, expresses a worldview, and makes people laugh. Mankind expresses many serious and continuing concerns which he can not say through jokes. The research study examined the Nasreddin Hodja stories in the light of four functions of folklore identified by W. Bascom. First, some information about Nasreddin Hodja, an important figure in Turkish culture was given and then some important issues argued by William Bascom, one of the prominent representatives of Theory of Functionalism, in his article “Four Functions of Folklore” published in “The Journal of American Folklore” in 1954 were mentioned and the Nasreddin tales were discussed in the light of this information. Theory of Functionalism is one of the most commonly used theories in folklore studies today. Functionalism was introduced to folklore research by Franz Boas, a cultural anthropologist and his students and since then it has become widespread. B. Malinowski (1884-1942) and A. Reginald Radcliffe-Brown (1881-1955) are regarded as the founding fathers of the theory. Following them, the theory was primarily developed by R. Thurnwald (1869-1954) and RuthBenedict (1887-1948) and some other scientists made important contributions. Functionalism was successfully employed in many studies in folklore research. The theory was employed in “Folktales and Society: Story - Telling in a Hungarian Peasant Society” by Linda Degh (1962), a Hungarian folklorist, and also in “The Functions of Folk Costumes in Moravian Slovakia” (1971) by Petr Bogatrev. Functionalism became the pioneer of the theories in folklore studies besides the theories and research models constructed on text–centred paradigms in folklore studies and the theories of telling and listening actions of an oral narrative in written forms and based on context concept included in the social-cultural circumstances (Çobanoğlu, 2002: 236-238). William Bascom is one of the leading representatives of Theory of Functionalism in Folklore. Bascom published an article “Four Functions of Folklore” in “The Journal of American Folklore” in 1954. In his article W. Bascom argued that folklore could serve four primary functions in culture and described them. According Bascom, amusement is one of the most important functions of folklore. There are deeper meanings under many elements of laughter. It is also true for fantasy and dream. The second function of folklore is that folklore validates culture, justifies its rituals and institutions. For example, myth fulfils in primitive cultures an indispensable function. Myths define beliefs and organize them, protect morals, and implement them. Myths confirm the effects of rituals and involve practical rules for mentors. Therefore, myth strengthens tradition; it traces the events at the beginning; it promotes credibility by increasing its value. The third function of folklore is that it plays an important role in education, especially for illiterate cultures. Raum’s study among the Chaga in Eastern Africa reveals the importance of folklore as a pedagogic tool. The giant tales here are used to discipline children and lullabies are sung so that children can have good personality. Fables and tales contain a moral about human behaviours and they are told to teach a moral lesson for people to achieve good behaviour, and get rid of some bad habits and behaviours. Knowledge in many societies is materialized in folklore. Folklore emerges in illiterate societies as a primary element for the education of children. The fourth function of folklore is that it maintains subordination to accepted patterns of behaviour. Apart from validating behaviours and beliefs, some forms of folklore are important with regard to exerting social pressure and exercising social control. African proverbs are quite important for exercising social control because they include strong verifications and they are considered to be suitable for adult life. Proverbs tell people how to act wisely. They are also used with the intention of determining social acceptance and rejection, praising those who choose to accept social customs and criticizing those who diverge from/ make fun of social customs. Proverbs resolve social disputes and discontent, and soothe individuals by helping them to control themselves regarding their environment and fate. Folklore has an important function for the maintenance of social adaptation and integration of an individual into society. Furthermore, folklore is used to inseminate traditions and moral standards in childhood, to reward when behaved accordingly, to punish with criticism when an individual goes astray, to provide rationalism when institutions and customs are questioned, to recommend being contented with them as they are and to enable an individual to escape from the daily life’s challenges and injustices in adulthood (Bascom, 2010: 78-83). The texts used in our analysis were taken from the manuscript “Seyyid Burhaneddin Çelebi -Nasreddin Hoca Lâtifeleri – Burhaniye Tercümesi” (201

Özet

Fıkralar, çok geniş bir coğrafî alan içinde, binlerce yıldan beri sözlü gelenekte yaşayan halk edebiyatı ürünleridir. Fıkralarda Türk halk kültürünün binlerce yıllık yolculuğunda toplum hayatındaki tüm gelişmeleri görebiliriz. Fıkralar hem bireysel hem de toplumsal anlamda Türk kültürünün önemli birer parçasıdır ve kültüre ait değerleri yansıtması bakımından da büyük önem taşımaktadır. Türk halkı olaylar karşısındaki düşünce, tutum ve davranışlarını fıkralarla duyurmuştur. Nasrettin Hoca da Türk kültür hayatında önemli fıkratiplerinden biridir. Nasrettin Hoca sadece bir mizah ustası değil, aynı zamanda büyük bir filozof ve halk bilgesidir. Başta Türk ülkeleri olmak üzere Dünya'nın birçok ülkesinde tanınan Nasrettin Hoca, sosyal hayatta karşılaşılan içinden çıkılmaz güç işleri, aklı, bilgisi ve hazır cevaplılığıyla mizahî biçimde çözen, güldüren; ama güldürürken düşündüren keskin Türk zekâsının sembolüdür. Nasrettin Hoca'nın sosyal hayatla ilgili fıkraları zengin bir konu çeşitliliği gösterir. Fıkralarının konuları toplum hayatının hemen hemen bütün alanlarını kapsamaktadır. Nasrettin Hoca hem halk bilgesi hem de fıkra tipi olarak Türklerin yarattığı en ünlü mizah temsilcisidir. Nasrettin Hoca'nın ünü ve etkisi çok geniş bir coğrafyaya yayılmış, kişiliğinde sadece XIII. yüzyıl Türk toplumunun değil, Türk milletinin çağlar boyu süregelen dertleri yansıtılmıştır. İşlevsel Halkbilimi Kuramı halkbilimi çalışmalarında günümüzde en yaygın olarak kullanılan teorilerden biridir. İşlevsel Halkbilimi Kuramı'nın önde gelen temsilcilerinden biri de William Bascom'dur. Çalışmamızda W. Bascom'un tespit ettiği folklorun dört işlevi ışığında Nasrettin Hoca fıkraları incelenmiştir. İncelemenin sonucunda, Nasrettin Hoca fıkralarının, William Bascom tarafından ifade edilen, folklorun hoş vakit geçirme, eğlenme ve eğlendirme; değerlere, toplum kurallarına ve törelere destek verme; eğitim veya kültürün gelecek kuşaklara aktarılarak eğitilmesi; kişisel ve toplumsal baskılardan kaçıp kurtulma işlevlerini yerine getirdiği görülmüştür