Various mental events such as remembering and forgetting develop depending on memory. The function of remembering the events in one's own life is met by the concept of autobiographical memory. Autobiographical memory is the recollection of all kinds of emotions, sensations and cognitive events experienced. Âşık Veysel in this respect, it is possible to see traces of the life of the minstrel, who sometimes wrote about events that he experienced or heard or learned from the lives of others in his works. When Âşık Veysel's life is examined, it can be seen that there are certain turning points in Veysel's life, as in the life of every person. These turning points in his life can be grouped under four headings. Âşık Veysel picking up his first saz, meeting his second wife, finding his mentor and uttering his first verse stand out as the primary breaking points in the minstrel's life. Âşık Veysel immortalized these memories by reflecting these turning points in his life in his poems. He did not forget every memory of these events that changed the course of his life and recorded and processed them both in his interviews and in his poems. These types of poems, which can be examined as examples of autobiographical (episodic) memory, are documents of Âşık Veysel's emotional, sensory and cognitive memories. This study will focus on the turning points rather than the firsts in Âşık Veysel's life. These turning points are seen as the main reason for the ongoing events in the continuation of the mentioned breaking processes. It is seen that there is a parallelism between Âşık Veysel's life and his poetry. In this context, his poems bearing traces of his life will be identified and read in terms of autobiographical memory.
Âşık Veysel, Autobiographical (episodic) memory, poetry, turning point