You can mark you interesting snippets of text that will be available through a unique link in your browser.


Kyrgyz literature

Kyrgyz literature

      the written works of the Kyrgyz people of Central Asia, most of whom live in Kyrgyzstan. A smaller population of Kyrgyz in China also produces works of literary significance.

      The literary history of the modern-day Kyrgyz begins in the early 19th century, notwithstanding disputed attempts by scholars to identify as “Old Kyrgyz” the language of runic Turkic inscriptions from the Yenisey River basin (9th to 11th centuries). The language of the earliest surviving works of Kyrgyz literature in manuscript, including the 19th-century poems of Moldo Nïyaz, is Chagatai, the common Turkic literary language of Central Asia, modified with features drawn from spoken Kyrgyz. (See also Chagatai literature.) From the Russian Revolution of 1917 until the 1930s, written Kyrgyz (Kyrgyz language) continued to develop under influences from the related Kazakh (Kazak language), Uzbek (Uzbek language), and Tatar (Tatar language) languages, owing in part to the slow development of Kyrgyz-language instruction. Prerevolutionary Kyrgyz was written in the Arabic alphabet; this was reformed and standardized in 1924. In 1927 the Kyrgyz writing system was switched to one based on the Latin alphabet, and in 1941 this was replaced by the Cyrillic alphabet, which continues in use today in Kyrgyzstan. (The Kyrgyz of the Uygur Autonomous Region of Xinjiang in China still use an Arabic alphabet.)

      Written Kyrgyz literature arose from rich oral traditions and was at the outset exclusively poetic. Manuscript poems derived from the oral epic cycle Manas written by Kyrgyz in their own language survive from around the turn of the 20th century. One of the earliest books printed in an idiom close to modern Kyrgyz, Qïssa-i zilzila (1911; “Tale of the Earthquake”) by Moldo Qïlïch, is in the lyric genre sanat-nasïyat (“maxims and wise instructions”), a form used by poets for social commentary. The book's elegiac tone, expression of disillusionment with Russian colonial rule, and yearning for an idealized Muslim society reflected the zar-zaman (“time of sorrow”) vogue that predominated in Kyrgyz and Kazakh poetry of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

      The tremendous growth in literacy among Kyrgyz during the Soviet period was mirrored by significant strides in the sphere of creative writing. Kyrgyz folklore provided the blueprint and materials for poetry of the first half of the 20th century by Aalï Tokombaev, Joomart Bökönbaev, Kubanïchbek Malikov, and Jusup Turusbekov. Prose fiction was among new literary forms that appeared under Soviet auspices and reached a high level of cultivation. The first short story published in Kyrgyz was Kasïmalï Bayalinov's Ajar (1927); the first Kyrgyz novel was Tügölbay Sïdïkbekov's Keng-Suu (1937–38; “Broad River,” the name of the village that is the novel's setting). The essay and the pamphlet also flourished, as did drama, literary translation, and children's literature. The Kyrgyz press was inaugurated in 1924 with the newspaper Erkin Too (“Free Mountains”).

      Soviet Kyrgyz literature was defined in relation to the political and social agendas of the state and the Communist Party. The “pessimism” and “mysticism” that the party found in works by Moldo Qïlïch and the zar-zaman poets were proscribed; writers were instead urged to incorporate progressive themes, such as land and water reform, the emancipation of women, and the struggle to overcome feudal and tribal authority. In working out their own approach to the artistic methods of Socialist Realism, Kyrgyz authors used models from Russian literature. The poet Alïkul Osmonov departed from Kyrgyz folklore and invented new verse forms inspired in part by the Russian poet Vladimir Mayakovsky (Mayakovsky, Vladimir Vladimirovich). The international character of Soviet society is reflected in such works as Maidan (1961–66; “The War Front”), Uzak Abdukaimov's novel about World War II.

      The short-story writer, novelist, and essayist Chingiz Aytmatov (Aytmatov, Chingiz) enjoyed international acclaim and a dominant position in Kyrgyz literature in the second half of the 20th century with such early works as Jamila (1958; Eng. trans. Jamilia), a tale of love amid changing times. After Kyrgyzstan gained independence in 1991, Kyrgyz writers took up issues of the nation's past, such as the people's Muslim heritage, traditional social structure, and colonial experience under Russia, in such works as Sooronbai Jusuev's Kurmanjan Datka (1994), a verse novel about the female leader of the southern Kyrgyz during and after the tsarist expansion. Starkly reflecting the calamitous post-Soviet experience, Aytmatov's Kassandra tamgasy (1996; “The Mark of Cassandra”; first published in Russian in 1995 as Tavro Kassandry) is a novel of global dystopia. In the first decade of the 21st century, poets, prose writers, and dramatists suffered from the contraction and reordering of literary markets in Kyrgyzstan that took place after the collapse of the U.S.S.R., but along with state support Communist Party censorship also vanished. Though deplored by the old guard, the new commercial climate created opportunities for authors to publish unvarnished portrayals of painful realities, as in the prison novels of Melis Makenbaev and the popular genre of detective and crime fiction.

Daniel G. Prior

Additional Reading
Hu Zhen-hua and Guy Imart, A Kirghiz Reader (1989), combines text samples and translations with extensive commentary on literary history, sociolinguistics, and the development of orthographic systems, and it also includes examples of literary Kyrgyz from China. Bektash Shamshiev, “Post-Soviet Kyrgyz Literature: Crisis or Renaissance?,” World Literature Today, 70(3):549–551 (Summer 1996), is an appreciative résumé of a national literature at the crossroads.

* * *


Universalium. 2010.

  
Share  

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Kyrgyz Academy of Sciences — National Academy of Sciences of Kyrgyz Republic Abbreviation NAN KR Type GO Purpose/focus …   Wikipedia

  • Turkish literature — A page from the Dîvân ı Fuzûlî, the collected poems of the 16th century Ottoman poet Fuzûlî …   Wikipedia

  • Russian literature — This article is about literature from Russia. For the song by Maxïmo Park, see Our Earthly Pleasures. Russian literature refers to the literature of Russia or its émigrés, and to the Russian language literature of several independent nations once …   Wikipedia

  • 2008 in literature — Events* None at present BooksLiterature* The Painter of Battles (January 8) by Arturo Perez Reverte * The Delivery Man (January 15) by Joe McGinniss Jr. * The Expeditions (January 15) by Karl Iagnemma * Beautiful Children (January 22) by Charles… …   Wikipedia

  • Kasym Tynystanov — ( ky. Касым Тыныстанов) (1901 1938) was a prominent Kyrgyz scientist, politician and poet. He served as the first Minister of Education of the Kyrgyz Republic.Early lifeKasym Tynystanov was born in 1901 in Chyrpykty village of Issyk Kul district …   Wikipedia

  • Central Asian arts — Literary, performing, and visual arts of Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Nepal, Tibet, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and parts of China and Russia. The term usually denotes only those traditions not influenced by the… …   Universalium

  • Aytmatov, Chingiz — ▪ 2009 Chingiz Torekulovich Aytmatov        Kyrgyz author and diplomat born Dec. 12, 1928, Sheker, Kirgiz A.S.S.R. [now Kyrgyzstan], U.S.S.R. died June 10, 2008, Nürnberg, Ger. explored such themes as love and friendship, the trials and heroism… …   Universalium

  • Central Asian literatures — Introduction       the poetry and prose writings produced in a variety of languages in Central Asia, roughly defined as the region bounded to the east by the Tarim Basin in China, to the west by the Caspian Sea, and to the south by the Amu Darya… …   Universalium

  • Bride kidnapping — Thought to be a bride kidnapping in progress in Central Asia, circa 1870 Bride kidnapping, also known as marriage by abduction or marriage by capture, is a practice throughout history and around the world in which a man abducts the woman he… …   Wikipedia

  • Terrorism and counter-terrorism in Kazakhstan — The threat of terrorism in Kazakhstan plays an increasingly important role in Kazakhstan s relations with the United States which in 2006 were at an all time high.[1] Kazakhstan has taken Uzbekistan s place as the favored partner in Central Asia… …   Wikipedia