ORAL NARRATIVE TRADITION IN TURKISH CINEMA: THE SAMPLE OF THE FILM HACI BEKTAS-I VELI

Hacı Bektaş-ı Veli, one of the Khorasan saints who was sent to make Anatolia the Turkish homeland and tried to spread Islam in these lands, has made his name heard through ages whether it is for his ser-vices or for his moral principles. This study aims to determine how the scholar is adapted from his myth-based work Velâyetnâme to cinema and which dynamics play a role in this adaptation. It is important to know what kind of path is followed in the representation of the scholar in the cinema adaptation in terms of shedding light on the studies to be conducted in the field. In this context, Hacı Bektaş-ı Veli, the only long-term movie of the scholar, bearing his own name and screened in cine-mas, was compared through the method of intertextuality with the work Velâyetnâme. The fact that this comparison is a pioneering study regard-ing the research on Hacı Bektaş-ı Veli and the narrative of Hacı Bektaşı-ı Veli in cinema constitutes the importance of the study. The study is limited to his life, his basic teachings, his services in Anatolia, oral nar-rative tradition in Turkish cinema, and the intertextual comparison of the film Hacı Bektaş-ı Veli and Velâyetnâme. When the findings obtained from the study were evaluated, it was found that Hacı Bektaş-ı Veli was reflected as a pioneering religious leader, proper to his character, with his moral principles in his representation in the cinema. In addition, when the film Hacı Bektaş-ı Veli and the work Velâyetnâme are com-pared, it is understood that in both of them the dialogues are given im-portance in accordance with the traditional oral narrative tradition, in both an epic narration is employed, and the importance and contribu-tions given to the moral and national values are emphasized in the film, hence some events and details which do not support the main theme and focal point are omitted from the aforesaid film.

Keywords

Velâyetnâme, Vilâyetnâme, Oral Narrative, Turkish Cinema, Hacı Bektaş-ı Veli