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Introduction
From a historical perspective, the concept of folklore emerged in Europe in mid-nineteenth century. Originally, it connoted tradition, ancient customs, and surviving the mid-nineteenth festivals, old ditties and dateless ballads, archaic myths, legends and fables, and timeless tales and proverbs. As these narratives rarely stood the tests of common sense and experience, folklore also implied irrationality: beliefs in ghosts and demons, fairies and goblins, sprites and spirits. It referred to credence given to omens, amulets, and talismans. From the perspectives of the urbane literati, who conceived the idea of folklore, these two attributes of traditionalism and irrationality could pertain only to peasant or primitive societies Ben-Amos, Glassie, & Oring (2020).
However, during its history, the folklore field has advanced several core ideas, among them that folklore-learned, practiced, and transmitted largely outside official settings and channels-constitutes a significant proportion of all cultural expression, not just a minor corner of it; that vernacular narratives, objects, beliefs, and performances offer especially productive routes toward understanding the identities and values people and communities create, and the extent and operations of human imagination; and that folklore shapes and is shaped by everyday life in our own (or any) time and place, not just in the past or somewhere else. Then, since its founding, the field of folklore studies has built an inclusive view of culture and creativity in communities by examining expressive life across boundaries of time and distance (Lloyd, 2021).
As highlighted by Bronner (2016, pp. 25-26) Hartland’s important question of “What is folklore and what is the good of it?” addressed the issue of whether folklore studies constituted science by stating:
But here you will tell me: It is impossible to have a science of anything which does not fall into method and is not capable of being classified and reduced to rule. Tradition is admittedly shifting, uncertain, chaotic; and how can you have a science in tradition?
His answer was that folklore obeys laws and follows patterns:
The aim of the science of Tradition is to discover those laws, by the examination of their products, the customs and beliefs, the stories and superstitions handed down from generation to generation, to ascertain how those products arose and what was the order of their development … (Hartland, 1899, p. 11).
Then, in the words of Honko (2013) folklore as an expression of traditional knowledge is primary evidence used by an analyst to produce findings and generalizations about tradition as process.
According to Khudaverdi̇yeva (2022) the study of folklore is necessary to promote the literary and cultural values that people owned and created. In this sense, the national identification of any nation is more clearly reflected in its oral folk literature. Then, folklore as an ancient history of mankind, is a very rich source of information to study and search the original outlooks, beliefs, customs and traditions of the people. In the case of Azerbaijan, as pointed out by Qizi (2016), there is no exact date of beginning of collection of folklore material. Though some samples of the different folklore genres have been preserved in the ancient manuscripts, anthologies, written monuments, they can’t be regarded as serious and scientific work on collection of folklore. That´s why at present it is important to examine and research the Azerbaijani folklore on the basis of scientific principles.
For its study, from a structural viewpoint, the characteristic of folklore arising from the transmittive process of tradition allows for comparison of material that otherwise would be separated by genre (Bronner, 2019). However, various folklore genres, customs and rituals have been created and passed down from generation to generation for many centuries (Babamuradova, 2022), and for that reason an interesting topic to address is how this process of change has occurred. Taking this into consideration, the objective of this work is to analyze the process of change in Azerbaijani folklore.
Development
The study of intra-genre changes in folklore is an important step since it clarifies many theoretical issues in the definition of species and genre. In this sense intra-genre change sheds light on all the subtleties of the genre itself. There are genres in folklore that are not limited to one species, and it is even difficult to determine the genre of that specific genre. For example, song is a genre of lyrical type. Game song is studied as a genre of both dramatic and lyrical genres. In this case, what kind of genre should be included? The question remains open. The same is the case of the examples of ceremonial folklore are spectacular. Folklorists study these examples as examples of ceremonial folklore, folk performances, and games.
Some examples of folklore are grouped as examples of children's folklore in terms of type and genre although there is no such thing as "children's folklore" among literary genres. In this case, there is a need to designate "Women's Folklore" and "Men's Folklore", which is a wrong approach. It is recommended to classify folklore samples into lyrical, epic and dramatic types. Even folklore samples included in textbooks, such as children's folklore genres, should be polished and classified according to the genre. The definition of some genres is, in fact, very simple. For example, Layla and the like are lyrical genres, but they are created for children. Folklore samples presented under the names of counting, winding and others are included in the group of children's folklore. Although all intra-genre variations of these folklore patterns consist of verses, they are playful. In fact, these examples are intra-genre changes of one genre - correctness (rotation). So, they are game songs and should be studied within the dramatic genre.
The difficulty in defining structural and thematic genres is due to the diversity of functions of the folklore sample. This begs the question: Can written literary genres be unconditionally attributed to oral folk literature? The answer is ambiguous. We have mentioned above that a game song (uralama, sanama, duzgu, etc.), which is a lyrical type due to its structure, belongs to the dramatic type according to its thematic purpose.
On the other hand, unlike written literature, there are genre manifestations of paradigmatic ideas in folklore. They are lyrical and epic. But within what genres should such examples be studied? Some paradigmatic assumptions create different beliefs that such examples can be included in the genre of belief. But the symbols and imaginations of the wheel go beyond belief. Or there are examples of folklore that are performed under names such as sayings, imaginations, views, sayings, and even formations. Therefore, the functions and features of folklore require a different approach to the issue of classification: "It is important to take into account the artifacts, beliefs, customs and traditions in the classification of the texture that forms the folk culture" (Khaveri, et al., 2016, p. 143).
One of the genre manifestations of paradigmatic ideas is Turkish. Turkish medicine has a practical nature and is synonymous with the term folk medicine. Some Turkish remedies are based on beliefs, the therapeutic effect differs according to the purpose, the result of which depends on the consistent or gradual implementation of the recommended ones on individuals.
One of the examples of paradigmatic ideas that have undergone changes within the genre are dreams. Dreams are based on predictions, interpretations, beliefs, and each example has its own purpose, and different outcome. These "genres" themselves are ambiguous. For example, the interpretations also rely on the beliefs of the Turkish rulers. Note this interpretation: A new baby is "determined" to be a boy or a girl because of the mother's heavy and light movements during pregnancy. Such interpretations are widespread in Iraqi-Turkmen folklore (Gaybaliyeva, 2020, p. 138).
The design challenges are more pronounced in larger genres. The saga is an epic example, but there are sagas based on the lyrical utterances of the ashughs, that is, first a poem, then a tale, a narration, a parable is added to it. Is the lyrical-epic dual purpose sufficient at this point? We make genre determinations within a species, and we see that when the barriers of a species disappear, the genre's boundaries expand. Even folklorists have come to the conclusion that "the concept of genre is characteristic of written literature, this concept does not fully correspond to the nature of the word culture" (Bayat, 2012, p. 102).
The genre specificity of folklore is due to the fact that this concept is based on the text, performance or application. The simplest expression of this concept is: Is the folklore text simply spoken? If completed by narration, the subject (content) and the structure of the narrative define the boundaries of the genre. If a folklore sample is performed (in the form of a game, competition, etc.), the genre designation of that sample must express these requirements. The genre definition of the applied folklore traditions (Turkish way, ceremonial events, etc.) is also based on this process. In conclusion, it can be said that "the defining features of the genre are the subject, the function, the image, the performance environment, and so on" (Bayat, 2012, p. 106).
Similar problems are experienced in the folklore of all nations. Therefore, the definition of type and genre, i.e., assignment, is observed with inter-genre transitions (modulations). The study of intra-genre changes also clarifies the purpose of the genre. For this purpose, a single perspective principle is required. This principle requires a stable approach to the theoretical issues of folklore. First of all, the genre definition must be done correctly, if a folklorist knows a pattern well, it does not mean that he defines the genre accurately. Therefore, the folklorist must study the features of the genre and come to a final conclusion about the genre.
Is the genre feature in a structural framework or is it thematically defined? At this point, special attention is paid to the functional structure of folklore. Is folklore text structural, or within a thematic-contextual framework? Structural qualities also include myths and rituals, “whose main purpose is to reveal the structure as a set of relationships that remain unchanged during various transformations” (Khaveri, et al., 2016, p. 102). As can be seen, the structure of the text prefers stability according to structural requirements: "Structuralists find layers in every text, and other layers of information in every information" (Khaveri, et al., 2016, p. 102). Then, the choice of contextual-performing text is based on thematic relevance, and the thematic genre designation is based on this basis (Khaveri, et al., 2016, pp. 110-115).
The classical form of the genre is "the unity of the compositional structure repeated in the work, conditioned by the originality of the described events of existence and the nature of the artist's attitude to them" (Mirakhmedov, 1988, p. 91). Thus, the genre and its features are "historically established form of compositional organization", "content turned into literary construction" and "pictures of literary genres", which cannot be fully applied to folklore. The genre limits of folklore samples exceed these limits.
Once the genre features are specified, it is necessary to pay attention to the modulations. Modulations should not be confused with genre terms within a genre. Modulation is the transition between genres. For example, a fairy tale can be based on a legend. Or it may be the origin of an ashug narration (a type of narration), and then this narration can be expanded and narrated by the ashugs as an epic. Pishrov is only a genre within the saga. Ashug narrations are created on the basis of ashug poems, ashug headwaters and are a genre that is only within the genre of epos, and in some cases is told independently. Examples of this type are considered changes within the genre. This means that the genre of the saga is based not only on the fairy tale, but also on the changes in the genre (including pishrovs) that play an important role in the formation of the saga genre and its formation.
Drawing attention to the problems of Azerbaijani folklore, Pasha Efendiyev writes that the changes between the ashugs also played an important role in the creation of epics: the songs that join the national heroes, the stories told in folk assemblies, memories and episodes are also important in the creation of the saga (Efendiyev, 2011, p. 69). For example, the "study of plot sections" of fairy tales allows for a systematic study of this genre. In general, "revealing the similarities and differences of different genres of folklore, defining their genre boundaries" depends on clarifying the characteristics of these examples (Aliyev, 2019, p. 17), especially in “love epics” (Efendiyev, 2011, p. 68).
Subgenre within large genres can also be understood as small genres on their own. The saga refers to examples of ashug poems, pishrovs, wheelings, proverbs, parables and other genres, which does not harm the main genre, ie the saga, but rather improves this genre. From the epos "Kitabi_Dada Gorgud" to the last epos, we encounter genre examples within the genre in all areas of epics. For example, the genres of ashug poetry are widespread in the sagas, and in general, it is impossible to imagine the saga without a couplet. What distinguishes the saga from a fairy tale is the completion of the content of the genres of ashug poetry in it: There is a fertile plot line and narrative opportunities for the development of tajnis, divani, ustadnama, duvaqqapma and other examples” (Mammadov, 2022, p. 15). It is also natural to refer to relatively small genres of folklore in the genres of poetry, poem, story, narrative, novel, and so on. As can be seen, the study of genres within a genre is different from the study of the characteristics of a particular genre.
On the other hand, intra-genre changes in folklore study completely different features. This includes a comprehensive study of the genre, the boundaries of the genre, the modulative aspects of the genre, structural similarities and differences, thematic combinations and other poetic qualities. Also, the genre shades of similar patterns or the same folklore samples, spoken under different names in the regions, also play an important role in intra-genre changes. For example, the anecdote is called a joke in the western part of Azerbaijan, in Sheba in Borchali, and in Bada in Nakhchivan. Interestingly, when comparing anecdotes, jokes, jokes, and fiction, or rather, comparatively, it is possible to observe differences that do not harm the genre. Regions of a genre, even among other Turkic peoples, is interesting since the different names are due in part to differences. Amin Abid, who thoroughly studies the bayats, draws a comparative analysis of examples such as mani, ashula, turgu, song, quadruped, shepherd, cripple, continent, crab, hen, chun, fiction, rubai, khoyrat, agi, and decides that their structural identity does not create a single genre framework (Abid, 2007, pp. 184-231).
Conclusions
Intra-genre changes in folklore study different features within the same genre. This includes a comprehensive study of the genre, the boundaries of the genre, the modulative aspects of the genre, structural similarities and differences, thematic combinations, and other qualities. Also, the genre shades of similar patterns or the same folklore samples, spoken under different names in the regions, also play an important role in intra-genre changes. The expression of intra-genre changes is sometimes also described as a new type of genre. Finally, Azerbaijani folklore is notable for its genre specificity, as well as the richness of changes within the genre.
