English Literature Assignment | Get Paper Help
Write a brief analysis and follow-up question(s) in response to the text. To help you focus, consider the “Questions for Discussion” while forming your response.
The Book of Dede Korkut (The Story of How Basat Killed Goggle-Eye)
This text is divided into twelve dastans that outline details of the Oghuz Turks’ nomadic, pre-Islamic culture. Dastans are “principal repositories” of ethnic identity, history, customs, and the value of systems of its owners and composers. They commemorate the struggles for freedom.
The dastan usually focuses on a single hero protecting his peoples from a foreign invader and is often used as a teaching tool for tribal members.
Dede Korkut, for example, appears as a sage and advisor, offering wisdom on agriculture and animal husbandry, transportation, and relationships among family members.
Humanoid-monsters often appear in these texts in order to challenge the protagonist as he evolves into a national hero. We’ve seen this in many of the texts we’ve read so far.
Do these “monsters” represent evil, or just a way to test human values? Basat’s upbringing in a lion family certainly parallels the tale of Homer’s Cyclopes – he attacks Odysseus but shows great care and love to his animals.
“Rape” was often portrayed as permissible in many ancient societies, since it was often associated with the birth of heroes or characters with divine qualities.
Oddly, we still see this often in contemporary comic book/graphic novel origin stories.
Modern scholars have argued that the word rape had very different connotations in antiquity: where today, the definition of rape relates to the absence of consent, in ancient writings, authors were more interested in questions of honor, particularly in dishonoring or threatening some husband’s bloodline. Unfortunately, that means the violence against the (usually) female survivor was treated secondarily (if at all).
Think of Zeus and Leda, Apollo and Creusa, Gilgamesh, or Bathsheba and David here. It’s an awful but common trope.
Questions for Discussion:
How does the satire work in Gargantua and Dede Korkut “work” in these texts? What are some similarities and differences? Can you find specific examples?
Consider the role of magical items, sacred names, and all the monsters running around this week’s texts. What sorts of roles do they play – are they used similarly or differently in these texts?
Think about the way each of these texts attempts to communicate and teach societal values and history. Each text is working to illustrate a “good” in-group and a “bad” out-group: Muslims and infidels, Quiché and Christians, civic vs. Christian duty…
What are some of the major differences in the way gender is depicted across these three texts? How are men and women described similarly or differently? Gods? Supernatural beings? Even animals?
