Abstract:

Folk literature, which is a production of daily life experiences transferred from mouth to mouth, encompasses many types such as epic, legend, folk poetry, mania, laments, songs, riddles, tales, folk story, anecdote, proverbs, idioms, rhymes, and etc. These products, which represent the oral tradition of the people, transfer numerous information regarding the life experiences, beliefs, and values of their communities to the next generation. Tales are more attractive since they depict extraordinary events and because of these characteristics they are very didactic. These are some reasons why tales have a very significant place in Turkish folk literature. People have documented tales successfully transferring from a nomadic life to a settled one. This study attempts to determine the scientific elements in Cyprus Turkish Tales, as sample in the scope of the Turkish Tales, through content analysis. Researchers in this study will examine the themes in the selected tales such as “Earth and Cosmos”, “Physical Event”, “Matter and Change”, and “Living Organisms and Life”. They will also provide a code-list according to the themes found in the tales. Researchers will do a content analysis in relation to the themes and code-listing activities in “Cyprus Turkish Tales” collected by Mustafa Gokceoglu, a well-known Cyprus Turkish folk literature writer. It is seen from the research that living organism and life (f: 25) and matter and change (f: 24) themes have very abundant coded. It is followed with an orderly physical events theme (f: 13) and earth and cosmos theme (f: 6). As a result, it is seen that in samples which are taken from Turkish Cypriot Tales, scientific items are widely used. It is believed that the results of the study will give different perspectives to Turkish Language, literature, science-technology, and classroom teacher providing them with interdisciplinary and rich materials.

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