Mythological elements in the works of Ziya Gökalp

With the westernization of the Ottoman Empire, the mythology which has the roots of the science, the art and the literature of the West, had come into use in the works of the Ottoman intellectuals of the time. After the diffusion of nationalization movements, Ottoman intellectuals had begun to be interested in their own culture and they had emphasized the importance of the mythology for the survival as a nation. Because myths are the narratives of the creation times and they always provides the regeneration with the help of containing symbolic meanings. The political and social crisis had made imperative this choice for the Ottoman intellectuals. Because of this this compulsory choice, as a sociologist, author, poet, and folklorist Ziya Gokalp had researched Turkish mythology and made use of the symbols and the icons of Turkish Mythology in his own literal works. Gokalp had thought that the only way of the escape of this crisis was the nation's return to his own individuality. So, he had enlivened the traces of the former Turkish culture before Islamization. In this master's thesis titled "Mythological Elements in the Works of Ziya Gokalp", the mythological elements in the works of Ziya Gokalp has detected. Especially, in his poems and tales, he had brought together the past and his own time. He had used the Turkish mythology in order to be an example for his time. The author had considered the Turkish mythology as a source of inspiration in order to change the bad fate of his nation in that time. In the first part of this thesis which has three parts (Genesis, Vita: the Expedition of the Hero and End of the World) except introduction and conclusion part, the sacred places where creation take place according to the ancient Turks has discussed and it has been researched how and why Ziya Gokalp used this sacred places. Also in this part, it has been dwelled on the sacred time in the social life and the regeneration of time in the process of transition from chaos to cosmos. In the second part, the request in his poems for the idealistic hero which has been created by Gokalp with the effect of situation of Ottoman Empire and the Turkish nation was detected. İn addition to this, in this part, the characteristics of the heroes in his poetic and prosaic tales was discussed. In the third part, Gokalp's opinion for the end of the world and the image of afterdeath has been discussed. After the research, consequently it has been seen that mythological elements has important place and has crucial function in the works of Ziya Gokalp.