An Analysis of the Story of Arzu And Kamber Compiled From Minstrel Mustafa Aydın

Abstract

Folk tales have survived for a long time as a part of culture with their various roles and functions. Although it has lost its vitality recently, it is still possible to see that the tradition is partially kept alive in the Eastern Anatolia region, especially in provinces such as Kars and Erzurum. The minstrels, who are the performers and representatives of the tradition, have undertaken the task of protecting the tradition of creating and telling stories and transferring the tradition to generations. From this point of view, one of the main objectives of this study is to evaluate the place of Âşık Mustafa Aydın, one of the living âşıks, in the storytelling tradition and to examine the story of Arzu and Kamber, which he contributed to the variantisation. In this context; I focused on the importance of Âşık Mustafa Aydın in the tradition of creating, telling and transferring stories. In order to examine the motif and episodic structures within the scope of the study, I tried to explain the differences between these variants by making a brief explanation about the oral variant numbered four in Esma Şimşek's master's thesis titled ‘A Comparative Research on Arzu ile Kamber Story’, the story of Âşık Mevlüt İhsanî and the story of Arzu ile Kamber numbered thirty-six in Ali Berat Alptekin's book titled ‘Motif Structure of Folk Stories’.  Thus, it was determined as a result of the examination, analysis and comparisons that the narrative of Arzu and Kamber of the minstrel, who has six stories of his own, is different from the known story. The interpretation of the story by a different narrator is one of the most important aspects of folk tales.