KELOĞLAN’DAN KÖSE DEĞİRMENCİYE: KÂMİL ERKEKLİĞİN İNŞASI
FROM KELOĞLAN TO BEARDLESS MILLER: THE DEVELOPMENT OF MATURE MASCULINITY

Summary/Abstract: Embracing a Jungian approach, this article explores the Keloğlan stories’ concealed content about an alternative, mature masculinity. The two stories interpreted in this article consider the male ego’s journey of individuation by engaging repressed psychic content. This allows the emergence of the mature masculine in the form of the trickster archetype, represented by the “Beardless Miller.” In the beginning the trickster may not appear as a positive figure but as we know him better we develop a different opinion. The trickster is humorous, spontaneous, pluralist, and practical rather than fearless, heroic, rigid or traditional. Beardless Miller enters Keloğlan’s life as an antagonistic character but eventually we see a bond developing between the two. In the end Keloğlan starts resembling the Beardless Miller. This is when his transformation becomes complete. As such, Keloğlan stories present an alternative, humble, but powerful, masculinity. Further, Keloğlan also shows that, despite the patriarchal “ruling culture” in Anatolia, a non-patriarchal form of masculinity has been present in the more “residual cultures” of the region for aeons.

• Details
• Contents