A study on Halil Daylak, representative of the 21st century minstrelsy tradition, and her poems

The tradition of minstrelsy, which is one of the important legacies of Turkish culture and whose origins date back to the minstrel-baxi tradition, began to form in the 16th century and has survived to the present day. Information about the 16th century, which is the starting point, is quite limited. The 17th and 19th centuries, which are characterized as the two golden ages of the minstrelsy tradition, are the brightest periods of the tradition. In the 18th century, which falls between the two golden ages, there were no strong names and the number of poems was small. In the 20th century, although hundreds of minstrels were trained, it is seen that the tradition remained under the influence of Tanzimat, Constitutional Monarchy and World War I. At the same time, the electronic culture environment, which has come to the fore since the end of 1980, has started to influence the minstrel tradition. In the 21st century, new literary understandings emerged with the Tanzimat literature. Affected by these formations, minstrel poetry started to deal with more social issues. In addition, the tradition that started in an oral culture environment has kept pace with change and reached a point that can be called a kind of digital environment. In this context, Halil Daylak, one of the minstrels who grew up in the 21st century, is a name that will help to determine the last point reached by the cultural changes in the tradition. This study, which was prepared by reviewing the literature and contacting the source person, consists of an introduction and three main chapters. In the introduction, the subject and field of the research, the purpose of the research, and the method used in the research are given. The first chapter is titled Information on the Research Area and gives information about the geography and history of Kayseri province, since the minstrel, who is evaluated in Central Anatolia, is from Kayseri. For the second part, a naming has been made in the form of minstrelsy and minstrelsy tradition and information is given about the minstrels who are the representatives of the tradition. In addition, other elements that are important in terms of shaping the tradition are also tried to be explained in this section. The third part, which constitutes the main part of the study, was subjected to an evaluation under the name of Halil Daylak and his poems, the representative of the 21st Century Minstrelsy Tradition. As a result of the study, it has been observed that Aşık Halil Daylak has undertaken a great task in the tradition of minstrelsy, literary direction, culture and tradition carrier and has set a good example.