“İÇ OĞUZ’A TAŞ OĞUZ ASİ OLUP BEYREK ÖLDÜĞÜ BOYU”NUN GÖSTERGEBİLİMSEL AÇIDAN İNCELENMESİ
A SEMIOTIC ANALYSIS OF THE EPIC “THE REVOLT OF THE OUTER OGHUZ AGAINST THE INNER OGHUZ AND THE DEATH OF BEYREK”

Summary/Abstract: The Book of Dede Korkut, one of the foundational texts of Turkish literature, constitutes a significant cultural source reflecting the worldview, belief system, and social values of Oghuz society. Within the work, customary law, ethics, and social order are transmitted through oral narratives, while values such as heroism and self-sacrifice for the community are prominently emphasized. The final tale of the Dresden manuscript, “The Rebellion of the Outer Oghuz against the Inner Oghuz and the Death of Beyrek,” stands out as a critical narrative that reflects the political and cultural tensions within Oghuz society. This study examines the aforementioned tale through a structural–semiotic approach. Although the narrative appears to depict a political conflict, it fundamentally embodies a mythic-epic structure centered on the disruption and re-establishment of cosmic order. The text exhibits a dual-layered structure: at the surface level, it presents Beyrek’s death and the conflict between Kazan and Aruz, while at the deeper level it operates through a process of ritual and mythological transformation. In this context, Beyrek is interpreted not merely as a classical heroic figure but as a mediator and restorer of order. His death is evaluated not as a physical ending but as a ritualistic/symbolic transformation. The analysis, grounded in Greimas’s semiotic model, demonstrates that oppositions such as order–disorder, center–periphery, and legitimacy–violation are determinative within the deep structure of the narrative. Furthermore, narrative segmentation, character perspectives, the associative and semantic analysis of lexical choices, as well as the functions of speech acts and spatio-temporal structures, are examined. Thus, the study reveals the epic’s multilayered system of meaning production.

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