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.