Atatürk Üniversitesi Edebiyat Fakültesi Dergisi

Abstract

“Openhandedness”, “generosity”, “loving to share” are virtues accepted in our tradition and society. On the contrary, "stinginess", "reluctancy of property sharing" and "greed for commodity" are not approved in our culture. As they do not comply with “He who gives from the goods gives from the heart,” principle, there is also doubt about the sincerity of those who are stingy. Through this framework in the study, the concept of "stingy/being" as reflected in classical Turkish poetry is defined as an example, and a detail is presented about "common typologies of misers". In particular, the "bad" and "good" human profiles in our society are explained by the comparison of "stingy-generous". In this way, the vocabulary relating to stingy and stinginess in our society is determined; tradition and society's view of the stingy is handled with the perspective of classical poetry. With the evidence of the text examples accessed, the distinctive features of the stingy; historical, religious, literary, psychological, sociological sources, metaphors, etc., are criticized comparatively in the testimony of written and unwritten cultural elements. Along these lines, the reasons for the dominant negative view of the stingy in our tradition and society; the reflections of the satirical language and terminology that developed accordingly to the classical Turkish poetry are also discussed.