Enver Behnan Şapolyo's Dede Korkut narratives in the context of intertextuality theory

One manifestation of the relationship between folklore and literature is the rewriting of traditional folk narratives. These narratives, which embody the identity values of nations as sites of cultural memory, have also assumed various functions in the modern era. The world of values in traditional narratives has been fundamental, particularly in shaping the identity and intellectual world of modern people. Enver Behnan Şapolyo is one of the writers who updated traditional narratives reproduced in the various forms and patterns of modern literature. Şapolyo, who wrote numerous works on Turkish history and culture, also has literary output that is considered more of a popular literary genre. Considered among the notable popular historical novelists of the Republican era, Şapolyo's literary sources include Turkish folk narratives. He repeatedly rewrote traditional narratives such as Oğuz Kağan, Ergenekon, Bozkurt, and Dede Korkut, thus producing texts that interweave folklore and fiction. This study analyses the Dede Korkut narratives written by Enver Behnan Şapolyo. Şapolyo rewrote Dede Korkut analyses at various dates, usually in the form of short stories. These narratives were shaped on the basis of the author's literary and ideological views and transformed into new texts in terms of both content and form with his own preferences and interventions. In the texts rewritten by the author, apart from the fictional changes of the traditional narratives, transformations have also occurred in terms of the world of meaning and values. In this context, determining the transformation of Dede Korkut narratives among the author's fictional narratives is among the main objectives of the study. Dede Korkut narratives written by Şapolyo are analysed on the basis of intertextuality theory.