Evil character types in Turkic folk narratives -myth, epic, minstrel story

Evil character types in Turkic folk narratives are designated as the major issue of this study. Within the scope of this comprehensive topic, evil character types in Turkic folk narratives are determined, classified, and analyzed in the present study. The structuralist method is utilized to examine the organization of the structural functions constituting a text. Thus, variations in the implementation of the structuralist method to folk narratives are evaluated. By this means, a new structural-centered method that can be adopted for the determination and organization of the evil characters in folk narratives is created. The present study is limited to myths, epics, and minstrel stories that are told by professional storytellers in order to properly demonstrate this new method. In this context, this project reveals the manifestation of the systematical structure of evil characters in Turkic myths, epics, and minstrel stories. For this, 62 texts of myths, epics, and minstrel stories from oral and written traditions of Altai, Bashkir, Khakas, Karachay-Balkar, Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Noghai, Uzbek, Yakut, Tatar, Tuva, Turkey, Turkoman, and East Turkestan (China) Turkic peoples are examined and 303 evil characters within these texts are determined. These characters are classified based on their roles within the text under eight topics: "spy type", "enemy type", "false hero type", "traitor type", "trickster type", "innocent or divine fool type", "opponent type", and "cruel parent type". After the determination and classification of evil characters, these eight evil character types are exemplified and introduced. Moreover, this descriptive information is converted to numeric data and demonstrated with tables and diagrams. Thus, an opportunity is taken to objectively analyze the qualities of evil characters. This information includes evil character's existential features, gender, variances, and transformations based on the genre. In addition to this, evil characters' functions within and out of the text in folk narratives are determined and informed by examples. The present study is comprehensive and distinctive in that it includes an original research method and information about characters of folk narratives; analyzes evil characters in Turkic myths, epics, and minstrel stories for the first time in an integrative way; and evaluates the functions of evil characters within and out of the text. Therefore, folklorists and researchers from other disciplines who work on antagonists, evil, gender, and functional folklore will be able to benefit from this study.