Multilayered Resonance: Re-imaginations of the history of Âşıklık [Minstrelsy]

Abstract

This article critically examines the historiography of the Turkish âşıklık [minstrelsy] tradition by assessing the agency and histories of âşıks [minstrels] through various ontologies to challenge the classifications and generalizations imposed by narrators in the recounting of mainstream âşık history. Specifically, Mehmed Fuad Köprülü’s (1890-1966) seminal research on âşıks and their tradition remains a guiding reference in shaping the overall historical narrative and subsequent academic studies. Traces of Köprülü’s canon are still present in contemporary research publications, which allows presuppositions regarding both âşıks and their tradition to persist in the national narrative of âşık history. To understand these multilayered circumstances, I use Actor-Network Theory [ANT] to shed light on the processes by which Köprülü’s canon is actively transmitted and reconciled within contemporary research networks, and I investigate the presuppositions held about âşıks and their tradition. Through a meticulous analysis of translations that contain assemblages of âşıks (human entities), objects (non-human entities), and discourses (non-corporeal entities), this article proposes a more inclusive past as a perspective, diverging from an exclusive historical narrative through ANTi-History. Moreover, it conducts an emancipatory ontological inquiry, critiquing the historiography of âşıks by tracing the paths of human actors across a broad spectrum that includes both non-humans and non-corporeal entities.