Old Techniques New Chains: Tall and Formula Tales from Aziz Nesin and Neill Gaiman

Abstract

Folktales are a genre produced for adults as well as children. Folktales are not only told in oral culture. In written culture, folktale maintains its vitality both through retellings and as a source for creation of authentic fictional works with its components such as motifs, characters, themes and plots. But sometimes some types of folktales with special narrative structures and patterns are used in the production of authentic fictional works. In this article are discussed that how Aziz Nesin and Neil Gaiman drawn on rhyme, tall tale and formula (cumulative or chain) narrative structures of folktale. The article aims to show that traditional narratives are a source of fiction writing not only in terms of content and motif, but also in terms of narrative techniques. It is also aimed to illustrate that fairy tale techniques can be used not only in children's literature, but also in works written for adults and in many different literary genres such as comedy, fantasy and science fiction. Aziz Nesin is a comedy writer who generally used realistic settings in his works. The author grew up listening to folktales. His some authentic works is the folktale genre. His target readers are mostly adults. Neil Gaiman produces works in multiple genre such as fantasy, science fiction and children's literature. The author, who loves fairy tales, also has some works in which he retells and reinterprets folktales. In the article, firstly, the narrative structures mentioned above are discussed, then, the reasons for using fairy tales in contemporary literature are determined; later, Nesin and Gaiman's relationship with folklore and fairy tales is mentioned; finally, selected works of Gaiman and Nesin in which these patterns of narrative were used are examined. The works evaluated in the article are: The stories “An American Guest Will Come to Our House” and “The Canning Can”, and the tale called “Mr. Ox and Mr. Ahmet” by Nesin; the books titled “Crazy Hair”, “Fortunately, The Milk”, and “The Day I Swapped My Father for Two Golgfish” by Gaiman.