A study on folktales collected in Uşak

In this study, we aimed to clarify the tradition of folktales telling and handing them down to next generation as well as the collection of them by means of a fielwork in UŞAK and the neighbouring villages. Uşak which has existed throughout the history under the sovereignity of Roman Empire, Hittites, Frigians, Lidians, Persians, Pergamum Kingdom, Great Seljuk Empire, Germiyanoğulları and Ottomans, is a remerkable settlement in a geography from Ancient times. The city which has welcome remarkable civilizations includes a deep oral culture. Nevertheless, it has been concluded that, as a result of scanning the written sources, there is no a collectin or scientific study on folktales in Uşak. Based on our study, we looked through the written information sources, studied the field of research, and piled up the data by mens of face-to-face interview with many source contacts. Moreover, by visiting the concerned area we made up various collections and they were archieved by cither voice records or taking photos of some source contact people. Meanwhile, the folktales were put into written form considering the regional dialect. As a result, 166 folktales were studied within Stith Thompson's Motive Index of Folk-Literature collected in Uşak. When the collected folktales are analysed, it is seen that some of them are similar to the other folktales told in other regions of Turkey, iti is also seen that there are different versions of the same folktale. It is detected that folktale tellers are generally women because folktales carry educational functions, moral themes andcoming out victorious of good from the struggle of good and bad. The folktales analaysed in our research are very rich but master tellers formal definition becomer weaker as the time pass by. Keywords: folk, folk literature, folktale, Uşak folktales.