An approach to the epic of Battal Ghazi in the context of grotesque transformation

Abstract

The Yeşilcam Cinema, in 1970s, adapted the epic of Battal Ghazi to many films. Having a closer look at one of these, "The Legend of Battal Ghazi", we see that epics, as reflections of nations heroic ideals, are parodied through such films. This tansformation stands close to Bakhtin's definiton of novel which parodies the literary kinds. In this manner, we can examine the film through the "grotesque transformation technique" which is an intertextual theory. The difference that comes from a comparison, in relation to this technique, of the dialogues and incidents in both the film and the epic reveals how epic as the narrative of a society is being obscured by another narrative, the film.