Imagination of children in Divans (14.-20. centuries)

The child, the smallest member of the society, is an indispensable element of human life and is the most important purpose of marriage. Every human being by nature wants to start a family and have children so that their generation will continue. Once the child opens his eyes to the world, he establishes a serious bond with the social life until he grows up. He becomes the focus of everyone around him, especially his own family. The child, who is a very important being in both family life and social life, has also been an element used in literary texts. As a matter of fact, the theme of children has also been handled in classical Turkish literature products, which constitute a long phase of Turkish literature for about six centuries. The main purpose of this study is the determination, classification and analysis of the child theme in divans. In the study, firstly, the words that meet the concept of child were examined and the frequency of use of these words in poems was determined. Afterwards, literary approaches related to children are included; it has been shown how the characteristics that characterize the child, the elements of social life, the proverbs and idioms related to the child, the child as an element of simile and reference are reflected in the couplets. In the last part of the study, individual poems describing important events such as birth, death and circumcision of children are presented. It is seen that many words are used to meet the concept of child in the examined divans. The theme of the child was handled by the poets in a concrete and abstract way. In the couplets, child-specific temperaments and behaviors, features in infancy, elements of social life, child-themed proverbs and idioms are handled; it is seen that many concepts such as plant elements, animals, cosmic elements, musical instruments, various tools, equipment and objects, abstract images are also associated with the child. In addition, there are separate poems written on important events such as the birth, death and circumcision of children in the divans. Keywords: Divans, Children, Imagination, Poem, 14.-20. Centuries.