The Diyarbakır tales and the symbolic examination

Folk narratives contain the customs and traditions, language, religion, tradition and life philosophies of the societies in which they are formed, and they act as a bridge between the past and the future and are tools that lead to the formation of national consciousness by transferring them to the next generations. For this reason, it is an indisputable fact that it is very important for society to identify folk culture elements, record them and take steps to carry them to the future, especially today when they are in danger of extinction. Fairy tales, which have developed and grown in oral tradition since the earliest periods of history, are a genre that has a wide place in folk narratives, contains the wisdom of the past and is transferred to the next generations through symbolic language. Fairy tales are the genetic memory of the societies in which they are produced and they play an important role in keeping the societies' cultures alive and transmitting them. The struggle of human being to individualize from birth to death has been processed into texts through fairy tale heroes. When these secrets hidden behind symbols in the texts are solved, they will make significant contributions to both revealing the unique cultural values of societies and unraveling the souls and subconscious of individuals. The aim of this study, which consists of two stages, compilation and analysis, is to identify the storytelling tradition of Diyarbakır province, to reveal the reflections of this tradition to the present day, and to compile the tales, which are elements of oral culture that have been told here for centuries, and to pass them on to new generations. When the compilations and previous tale texts are examined, it is seen that Diyarbakır tales, which have a long plot, are also quite rich in terms of symbolic elements, formal structure and motifs. These identified elements bring to light the unique structure of Diyarbakır tales, and it is seen that they contribute to the shaping of today's culture by revealing important clues about the messages given in the narratives.