Abstract
Wolfs and Mankurts
The male wolf motive has been kept alive in many different forms among Turkic people. The gray-wolf that entered the yurt/tent of Oguz Kagan once again appears in one of the Kokturk epics as a she wolf symbolizing reincarnation and growing in number. The male wolf also appears in the Uigur epic Türeyiş as a symbol of God.
Despite the intervening thousands of years the wolf-motive has been kept vivid in narratives, stories, and novels. This work will try to establish a bridge between mankurtism/slaverism and the wolves. Mankurtism has been a phenomenon since the print of Aitmatov’s book Gün Olur Asra Bedel. This book was a corner stone to imply Soviet regime’s pressure on the people. As close witnesses of these tragidies represantatives of Turkic literatures use wolf image as the symbol of freedom. Aitmatov’s work Dişi Kurdun Rüyaları, Auezov’s story “Kökserek,” and Tölögön Kasımbekov’s “Bozkurt” are examined from the process of mankurtism.
Keywords
Wolf, mankurt, Turkish history.