Öz
The subject matter of this study is female types in Kyrgyz epics. With the aim of determining the above mentioned types, the typological features of female characters in Kyrgyz epics were determined as paying attention to their acts in the epics and the determined types were classified. After classification, the typology of female characters was analyzed in the holistic point of view. Kyrgyz epics were chosen as the sample in this study because of the fact that Kyrgyz epic tradition and Kyrgyz epics have a remarkable place within Turkic world epic tradition in terms of both quantity and quality. In Kyrgyzstan, master narrators who are affiliated with specific schools have been carrying on the epic narration tradition today in an active way. Accordingly, one can state that Kyrgyz people use the epics for creating the family consciousness, transferring cultural heritage between generations functionally. This type of folk literature which is so much effective in terms of supplying continuity in the cultural life was discussed in the researches with its different features. In these researches, it was explored that the male protagonist or other male characters were focal point. However, in the type of epic whose protagonist is mostly male, the female characters have also important functions. Stating these functions and discussing the epics which have female protagonist structurally are important since they give importance to the female characters in the type of epics specifically and they illustrate close relation between the social structure and the epic. The scope of this study comprises Kyrgyz epics conveyed into Turkish. Among these epics, the translated version of Kyrgyz epics as either in the format of postgraduate dissertations or in the format of books was benefitted from. Hence, this study was limited to 20 Kyrgyz epics some of whose protagonists are female and some are male plus 126 female characters detected in the character list of these epics. The study was established on the act of female characters identified in Kyrgyz epics.