Old Wines in the "New Bottles": Ekmek Teknesi, a series telling folk tales

Abstract

This article aims to analyze the usage of oral culture in the era of electronic mass communication. Water J. Ong's "primary oral culture" and "secondary oral culture" terms was the basis of this study. In this frame a television series, called Ekmek Teknesi which is chosen as a representative of secondary oral culture, characteristics and functions of folk tales and storyteller are compared and contrasted. The result of this comparison lead us to the conclusion that not only outstanding character of the series Heredot Cevdet the storyteller but the series, itself, has the characteristics and functions of a folk tale similar to the ones in the primary oral culture. This article claims that Turkish society which has still got most of the characteristics of a primary oral culture society and which has not exactly adapted to the urban life yet, need a story teller to remind its "old traditions". As a result, one of the products of secondary oral literature, Ekmek Teknesi, meets this need of the society.