What do Keloğlan stories say about masculine anxieties and reclaiming masculinity?

ABSTRACT

Keloğlan stories deliver an anti-patriarchal message. The stories interpreted in this article narrate the male ego’s journey of individuation through an engagement with repressed psychic content, particularly the “shadow.” This allows the emergence of mature masculinity in the form of the “trickster” type. Keloğlan stories present a humble, but powerful, masculinity and show that, while patriarchy has a long and cross-cultural history, so does discontent with it. Scholarship on masculinity remains focused on European-origin tales, but the Keloğlan stories show that feminist views of masculinity are not foreign to Anatolian folklore.

KEYWORDS:

• Keloğlan
• fairytales
• trickster
• shadow
• masculinity
• individuation

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Şimşek, “Türk Masallarının Milli Tipi.”

2 Chinen, Beyond the Hero.

3 Uçkun “Keloğlan Tipinin Gagauz Masallarındaki Yansımaları”; Şimşek “Türk Masallarının Millî Tipi”; Daşdemir, “Erler Karısına Koca Olmaya Giden Keloğlan,” Şimşek, “Türk Masallarının Milli Tipi”; Boratav, Az Gittik Uz Gittik; Zaman Zaman İçinde; Alangu, “Keloğlan Masalları / Mitostan Kurtuluş – Gerçeğe Yöneliş.”

4 For ruling and residual cultures see Williams, Marxism and Literature, 121–2. For feminist readings of Middle Eastern fairytales see Demiralp, “1001 Nights with Animus,” 213–29.

5 Warner, Once Upon a Time, 126.

6 ibid., 126.

7 Freud, Interpretations of Dreams; Jung, Four Archetypes.

8 Jung, Four Archetypes.

9 Tatar, Enchanted Hunters.

10 ibid.

11 Sharp, Digesting Jung.

12 Freud, Interpretation of Dreams; Niditch, “Samson as Culture”; Leach, “Magical Hair."

13 Some studies consider Keloğlan’s bald head as a spiritual symbol of humility (as seen among monks) as it reflects the sacrifice of a bodily asset. See Ögel, Türk Mitolojisi II, Beydili, Türk Mitolojisi Ansiklopedik Sözlük, p 308; Şahin, “Kaz Dağlarında Dağ,” 116. While in these interpretations, the loss of hair is voluntary (as opposed to castration), they still reinforce the idea that body hair is considered as an asset, similar to jewelry or beautiful clothes, that signal power.

14 Estes, Women Who Run with the Wolves.

15 Adler and Hull, Collected Works of Carl Jung Part I; Sharp, Digesting Jung.

16 Chinen, Beyond the Hero.

17 ibid., 88.

18 ibid., 86–8.

19 Ugra is a thicker flour that can be mixed with regular flour when baking bread.

20 Jung, Four Archetypes.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Isik Universitesi.