Paper long abstract:

The question of Chingiz Aitmatov's oeuvre in the context of Russian Literature has been widely debated in the Comparative, Soviet Multinational and Kyrgyz Literature field with scholars such Joseph R. Mozur, Georgy Gachev, Keneshbek Asanaliev, and Abdyldajan Akmataliev arguing that without the Russian Language, Literature and Culture this Kyrgyz writer would not achieve the recognition worldwide. However, their perspectives have not taken into the consideration such negative repercussions as the cultural conflict between Kyrgyz and Russian Cultures. My paper addresses the issue of clashes of Kyrgyz culture as the national and Russian culture as dominant in Soviet times with special attention on the translation of Chingiz Aitmatov works written in Russian into the Kyrgyz Language. Specifically, in my project, I will be looking at the history of Kyrgyz translations of those works and examining cross-linguistic and cross-cultural complexities during the process of their reentering into national cultural context. Based on the methodology which is formulated in works of Emily Apter, Pascale Casanova and Michael Cronin, I argue that the major obstacle for Kyrgyz translators is the cultural replacement Russian Language works of Kyrgyz writer.

In conclusion, this project, by closely examining these Aitmatov's works sheds new light on a rarely acknowledged issue of cultural clashes between Kyrgyz and Russian Cultures.

Paper long abstract:

"Literature ad marginem"- this is how Pavel Bannikov, one of the informal leaders of the younger generation of contemporary Kazakhstani writers, refers to Russophone Literature in Kazakhstan. This definition plays with hierarchical ideas about the center and periphery, the superior and inferior. By invoking the sense of being on the edge that refers to stereotypical and imperial geographical imagination this qualification rejects a subordinate view of Central Asian literature as a cultural province of Russian literature. Growing interest in Russophone Kazakhstani literature exhibited by some well-known Russian journals and literary awards speaks to an important change: Kazakhstani writers are no longer on a literary periphery; they are now in a new developing center of Russophone literature. The reconsideration of the notion of the center and periphery impacts the writers' self-consciousness and identification. I realized this during my interviews with some of the Kazakhstani authors who said that they feel quite independent of what is going on in Moscow both politically and aesthetically. A new vision of Kazakhstani national territory one can find in a recent book by one of these authors, a Russian Prize winner Iurii Serebrianskii. His Kazakhstani Fairy Tales demonstrate the author's fascination with the country's landscapes as his native environment and show that he does not perceive himself as a representative of diaspora. In my paper, I emphasize the difference between the younger and older generations of the contemporary Russophone Kazakhstani writers and argue that the post-traumatic sense of loss and absence is more typical of the latter that has more negative sort of identification focused on trauma, while the former is characterized by more positive identification concentrated on the new national post-independent realities of Kazakhstan. The younger writers create their own spatial metaphors and geographies to expresses their Kazakhstani or global identities, and by that they contribute to decentralization of the Russophone world.

Paper long abstract:

Beginning of XX century was distinguished by many important and outstanding events the majority of which undoubtedly greatly affected the mentality of modern people and formation of values.

After 25 February 1921, in annexed Georgia appeared Soviet society which had to start existence in specific conditions, so for the cause was developed a plan for "taming" the society and intelligenzia, while opposition from them was quite strong. The Soviet authorities understood the power of art and literature so writers were given the function in human life - to build totalitarian empire; that is why the role of the writer and literature was quite extensive in the formation of Soviet era mentality.

In the process of my research I worked on the archival data, collected the research issues, in order to create the representative empirical data-base on the background of the theoretical overview of the already published academic articles.

My research topic is the "laborer poet" created by the Soviet era. The given facts are analyzed in an unique and interesting way in the context that these two words laborer and poet contract with each other initially. As a result of the historical stage, the new psycho-type was created, having leading role in the Soviet system ideology space, as the appearance of the laborer poet phenomenon is related to the Soviet system, which has turned factories into the centers of creative processes.

Our report is focused on Georgian laborer poets, there have been multiple illustration facts and examples of how a laborer takes the pen together with his tools and acts as a writer. Main goal of our research is to study and analyze the ideological discourse as a phenomenon based on the currently archived, "dusted" material.

Materials obtained by us clearly show the position of the given part of society; how they took the function of certain ideological and national leaders and how honest their viewpoints were.

Methodological basis of our research are the works by classics of literature science, philosophy, cultural sciences, sociology, anthropology, ethnology and synergetic sciences, theoretical-methodological approaches and concepts, theory of unity and diversity of cultural-historic process, multicultural society theory, acculturation and assimilation theory. Concepts of cultural pluralism, cultural diversity, tolerance, marginality and ethno-cultural security have been used and analyzed.