Narratives about religious personages [Di·nî Şahsi·yetler Hakkinda Oluşan Anlatilar]

The problems of definition and classification of prose genres in Turkish folk literature studies are still on going. In general, common classifications are used in present studies. However these classifications always cannot serve the need. We also came across with this problem while doing our field research about saint cult and classifying and analyzing narratives about shrines. As a result we determined three prose narrative genres related with religious personages: hagiography, legend and memorate. In this study criteria for distinguishing aforementioned these three genres will be examined under the titles of heroes being alive, intensity of belief, experience, period and subject of the narrative. It will be examined how these criteria structurally enough to fit to distinguish those genres. From these criteria while the hero being alive and the structure of narrative separate hagiography from the other two, intensity of belief, experience and period provide a basis to distinguish between memorate and legend. Moreover, close relations of these narratives which shares holiness of religious personages in common and their depending features to narrator which gives them to be classified under different genres will also be emphasized in our study.