Incest in folk narratives

The aim of this study is to ascertain incest theme in Turkish folk narratives and to analyse biological and psychological factors and social and cultural perception of incest phenomenon. In this sense, the incest theme in folk tales, folk stories, poetic epics, folk songs, threnodies and Turkish poems is the analysis in feminist perspective by making use of Jung?s archetypal symbolism. In the first section of the study, Jung?s analytical psychology and archetypes are specified. The ideas of psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud and Carl Gustav Jung on incest are referred to in the context of the Oedipus Complex. Sense of mother-son incest set forth in the Dede Korkut Oğuznameleri is examined while referring to the Oedipus Complex. In the second section, folk songs, folk tales and stories comprising father-daughter and father-in-law-daughter-in-law incest motives are analysed. In the third section of the thesis, the Arzu ile Kamber story which evokes brother-sister incest is assessed. The last section, deals wise brother-in-law-aunt-in-law and brother-in-law-sister-in-law incest in poetic epics, folk songs, threnodies and Turkish poems in the context of the line of descent interrelated by marriage. Incest theme differ according to the types of folk narratives, and any type of incest is examined within its own type of narrative. In consideration of folk narratives, the scope of incest is explained through the effects of Islamic religion and traditions within the framework of social and cultural structure.