Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
Milli Folklor, cilt.10, sa.78, ss.109-113, 2008 (Scopus)
In folklore, "petrifaction" is the process by which a human, an animal or a plant is converted into stone. There are many reasons for petrifaction. It is a common motif in oral tradition. As in Turkey, this motif is also very widespread among Turks living in other Turkic countries. It is highly possible to find this motif in almost every Turkic clan. In fact, as well as its prevalence in oral tradition, this common theme has also been used in literary texts. One of the poets who used this motif in his poems is Saken Seyfullin. Seyfullin, who established the Kazakh-Soviet literature, mentions the petrifaction motif in his "Kökşetav" poem in which there are legends that are widespread among people. By this "Kökşetav" poem of Saken Seyfullin, this theme of petrifaction, which is an element of oral tradition, is used in a written literary text. Therefore the poem "Kökşetav" is very important. In addition to this, the legends in the memories of the folk have been narrated with the artistic expressions in this poem, and they deserve to be called "literary". It is crucially important that oral cultural elements, like legends, are supposed to be transmitted to the next generations through written literary forms by a talented poet.