BUTA IN “ASLI AND KEREM”

Abstract

The article comprehensively involved the research of the epic “Asli and Kerem”. Based on the text of the epic, the value of the concept of buta in folk thought was analyzed. The research was conducted in the light of the attitude towards both of the two existing types of analysis prisms in folklore. Thus, in the epic “Asli and Kerem”, which is a monument of epic thought, both the traces of the mythical worldview and the historical type of thinking of our people have been preserved. From this point of view, the events taking place in the epic were approached from both the mythological point of view and the prism of historical consciousness. Thus, this epic, which is a monument of epic culture, has experien­ced the mythical consciousness and historical thinking in parallel.

It is known that the traditional ending of Azerbaijani folk epics ends with an optimistic finale. However, this is not the case in “Asli and Kerem”. At the end of the epic, the lovers from Buta cannot reunite and it ends with a tragic ending: the lovers burn to ashes. This moment has been analyzed as an echo of historical thinking in the epic. It has been explained that since the marriage of the Armenian girl Asli and the Azerbaijani boy Kerem to each other is considered forbidden in the folk thought, our people do not reunite them in the finale of the monument of immortal love. It has been substantiated that such a thought is also reflected in parallel in our other folklore examples.