Sense of Fear and Folk Tales: A Comparative Discussion of Turkish and Irish Narratives
Masallarda Korku Duygusu (Türk ve İrlanda Masalları Arasında Bir Karşılaştırma)

Author : REFİKA ALTIKULAÇ DEMİRDAĞ
Number of pages : 151-157

Abstract

Culture is strongly embedded in folk tales, and as such, they can be an indicator of cultural differences between societies; they can also show that emotions are the same across times and cultures. One of the best examples that can be given in this regard is the way in which the ‘fear’ feeling is handled in fairy tales as an important image. Although different images or forms of expression are used in the folk tales of different cultures, the excitement of the sense of fear never changes. A hero generally desires fear and then tries to control this. In fairy tales, this situation gains importance in two different ways. The first is the way the fairy tale heroes feel fear and the other is the narrative that the tale narrator uses to connect the listener with a sense of the heroes' fear. From this two-way perspective, it can be seen that there are interesting similarities and differences when Turkish and Irish tales are compared. Heroes encounter fear in similar situations: they encounter extraordinary creatures, magic and mystery, travel to unknown lands and encounter ghosts or death in disguise. In addition, the use of fear in the narrative forms of Turkish and Irish tales differs. The extent to which the tale narrator will transmit the sense of fear to the listeners is important. The narrator may transmit the fearful environment or objects by creating a fearful atmosphere for the listener, or by choosing the opposite, preferring to alleviate and simplify the description of the fearful situation or objects. If these two situations are discussed on the basis of fairy tales, cultural differences can be seen more clearly. In this study, Turkish Tales by Naki Tezel and Irish Fairy and Folk Tales by W. B. Yeats will be used to compare the sense of fear in Turkish and Irish tales.

Keywords

Tales, Sense of Fear, Turkish Tales, Irish Fairy and Folk Tales

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