Uluslararası Halkbilimi Araştırmaları Dergisi

Abstract

In the study written by Çiğdem Akyüz Öztokmak, the author; In the introduction, he states that the aim of the study is to contribute to the end of the widespread belief that folk poets are not given the necessary value. Quoting Umay Günay, the author states that "intellectuals think that folk literature texts do not have literary content that can be evaluated in the light of contemporary theories" (1). He brings up that the expressions in question reflect the understanding that the concepts of folk poetry/folk art, which have been going on for centuries, have not found the place they deserve. In this context, the author underlined this feature of Âşık Sümmânî, one of the most important illiterate folk poets of the 19th century, and tried to examine the philosophy of existence fed by folk aesthetics and minstrelsy tradition, and the dimension of thought that skillfully incorporated Sufi elements into his works. In the study, the poems of the minstrel, which were discussed in terms of existential philosophy, were accessed from the works titled Âşık Sümmânî Divanı (2010) and Narmanlı Âşık Sümmânî (2018), published by Abdulkadir Erkal. The author determined the research method of the study as "'themes related to existence' in the context of the data presented by minstrel poetry, although it is nourished by the existential philosophy approach" (4). The author, who emphasizes that in the research, the minstrel's works will be evaluated not as direct products of existential philosophy but as projections of the teachings of this philosophy, draws the boundaries of the study from this perspective.