The minstrel Turkish tales in intertextual relations

In this thesis, on the base of Turkish minstrel tales, the place of oral narrations as hypertexts in intertextual relations is analyzed.In the first part of the work, the notion of ?intertextuality? which has extended to a wide scope is limited with how literary critics approach the ?intertextual relations? among literary works and considering these approaches whether it is possible to discuss the intertextual relations in oral literature. To make an introduction to this discussion, the approaches of some critics to the concept of ?text? is presented, and then the study focuses on the ways of intertextual relations among written literary texts to examine the similar relations among oral literary texts. In this respect, the oral literary texts are analyzed through the concepts of ?palimpsest?, ?rewriting?, and ?tradition?. In addition to this, the views on how the writers and oral composers produce their texts are taken in to consideration to understand the intertextual relations between an oral and a written text and also between two oral texts. At the end of the discussion, it is observed that oral literary texts can have roles as hypertexts in intertextual relations.In the second part of the work, some of the Turkish minstrel tales are analyzed in the frame of Gérard Genette?s `palimpsests? approach. It is presented that in the transtextuality category; the minstrel tales demonstrate both intertextual relations and hypertextual transformations. In terms of intertextuality, the tales present self-conscious intertextual relations by referring to other texts. In terms of hypertextuality, they transform the other texts by the process of reduction, extension, amplification and so on. Because of this process, the structure, the plot and the meaning of the previous text is transformed. As a result, the Turkish minstrel tales, as oral literary texts, can actively have role in intertextual relations as hypertexts.