An Analysis of Adiyaman's Compilation of Kurdish Orally Transmitted Folktales Utilizing the Methodology of Russian Formalist Literary Criticism: The Folktale Gurrî û Hûtê Kor

In: The international journal of Kurdish studies: IJOKS, Band 6, Heft 2, S. 187-201

Abstract

Using the methodology of Vladimir Propp (1895-1970), a major figure in Russian Formalist literary criticism, this study analyzes Adiyaman's compilation of Kurdish orally transmitted folktales known as Gurrî û Hûtê Kor. In his major work The Morphology of the Folktale (1928), Propp reduced the Russian folktales compiled by A.N. Afanasyev to what he himself called "functions," otherwise "morphological substructures." The Gurrî û Hûtê Kor folktales are a variant of the Gurrî folktales as elaborated on by Kurds speaking Kurmanji in Adıyaman and its surroundings. Also discussed is the role of the folktale in the moral education of society, young and old in view of the importance of the folktale as fantasy intertwined with social realities and universal truths.