Özet:

Language is the most distinctive feature that separates humans from other living beings. Although language is generally considered as a means of communication, it is also intertwined with aesthetics. The aesthetic dimension of language is related to the concept of literature. Literature can be defined as the science that represents beauty in written or oral products that belong to human. The main aim of this study is to determine the place and equivalent of this concept in the thought universe, which searches for beauty in emotions, thoughts and expressions. In this direction, the phenomenon pattern, which is included in the qualitative data collection techniques, has been used in the research. The study group of the research consists of students who are studying at a state university in the Inner Anatolian Region during the 2021-2022 academic year and Turkish, Literature and Class teachers who are working in a central city in the same region. The study group was formed using the purposeful sampling method. The data related to the research were obtained using an open-ended questionnaire. According to this, when the metaphors produced by teachers and teacher candidates were evaluated together, it was concluded that participants have a very wide variety of meanings in their minds regarding literature. One of the significant findings of the research is that while the metaphors produced by students regarding the concept of literature were collected into seven categories, teachers produced metaphors in six different themes. While the developed categories are compatible with each other, teachers did not produce any metaphors in the dimension that literature is only a "means of transmitting thought".

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