Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
Milli Folklor, cilt.2023, sa.140, ss.48-60, 2023 (AHCI)
Stith Thompson's Motif Index of Folk literature includes the motif of making one riding a donkey backwards as a form of punishment. Emine Çakır, in an unpublished essay titled, “Why did Nasreddin Hodja mount the donkey backwards? Who knows…”, gives some definitions of the equivalent of this motif in Türkiye. The motif in question, which is frequently encountered in Western and Eastern cultures and used in different fields such as literature, history, law, art, apart from folklore (especially in the carnival tradition), varies according to the context in different countries. Hence, while working on the perception of the motif in question, it is necessary to consider the following distinction: “Riding a donkey backwards" and "being forced to ride a donkey backwards" are two different acts. The former is related to an idea of "will", while the latter is related to an idea of “involuntary”. One is active while the other is passive, respectively. In the active, the subject is the real subject of the action; in the passive, the real subject is someone else (the people); the apparent subject is the one which is exposed to the action. The active one should be evaluated from the perspective of ethics, morality, tolerance, belief (religion); the passive one is suitable to be evaluated from the perspective of morality, belief (religion) as well as violence (humiliation, ridicule, punishment), and therefore justice. The motif of mounting a donkey backwards in Nasreddin Hodja is suitable for the first definition. In Western cultures, the recurring similar motif (mainly action) fits the second definition. Different subjects and different actions naturally open the door for the differentiation of motivations. For example, while the motif comes to the fore in Nasreddin Hodja more of a respect/disrespect dilemma, in Western cultures (especially in France) it appears as an image/act (and ritual) of "punishment" from the Middle Ages until the end of the nineteenth century. In this article, it will be focused not on the question of why Nasreddin Hodja mounts the donkey backwards (a lot has been said about it), but rather on the applications and meanings of the motif of mounting the donkey backwards in France as well as in some other countries and works. Accordingly, by focusing more on the signified, we will emphasize that a form of social punishment is transformed into a ritual during carnival periods. Undoubtedly, a ritualized action has its counterparts in the literary context. Some writers (for example, Ségur) did not hesitate to rewrite the essence of the ritual in the context of a narrative by transforming it with one function or another. It can be seen that there are differences according to the region and country between the implementation of an institutional event recurring in a synchronic as well as diachronic perspective in different periods. Apart from its counterpart in Nasreddin Hodja, the ritual of putting the donkey back on the agenda in Western cultures with social practices such as uproar, carnival and crazy's feast is not only social but also political, ideological, moral, etc. in the Western imagination. As a reflection of common sense with an orientation, the perception of established values in the eyes of the society also informs about social reactions. In addition to those who work on social habits, those who went to another country and witnessed the ritual of putting the donkey upside down, as well as artists, give information about the practice of the ritual. In this article, some determinations will be made in order to examine the perception of the ritual of riding the donkey backwards.