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Abstract

In Kazakh literature of the Independence period, the dominant themes are the restoration of national consciousness, distorted during the colonial era, and the artistic representation of collective traumas such as famine, repression, and nuclear disaster. These national traumas have had a profound impact on the psychological and social condition of Kazakh society, especially on Kazakh women, whose fate has become a clear indicator of imperial tyranny.

This article examines the relationship between national trauma and the representation of women in the works of leading figures of contemporary Kazakh literature, R. Mukhanova and A. Kemelbayeva. Within the framework of postcolonial and gender theories, the concepts of “physical trauma” and “memory trauma” are explored, along with the artistic manifestations of the decolonization process. In the works of R. Mukhanova and A. Kemelbayeva, female characters are depicted as active subjects who experience trauma and express the national tragedy.

For example, Laila in Roza Mukhanova's story "The Eternal Child" is the most complex traumatic figure in Kazakh literature. In the story, the national trauma is conveyed through the Semipalatinsk nuclear test site. Laila’s physical disability is not just a biological anomaly; in a postcolonial context, it is the “mark” that the empire has placed on the Kazakh body. Laila’s stunted body is a symbolic representation of how the totalitarian system has stifled the future of the Kazakh people. As a woman, Laila’s greatest trauma is the denial of her feminine identity by a society that treats her as disabled.

Aigul Kemelbayeva's prose (the novel "Munara", the story "Shashty") focuses on intellectual and spiritual decolonization. A. Kemelbayeva's characters stand in contrast to R. Mukhanova's Laila. They are educated, study history, and strive to uncover the mysteries of the past. In Kemelbayeva’s prose, the trauma shifts from the physical to the intellectual level. The writer seeks a way to heal national trauma by returning to national codes (folklore, myth, and genealogy). Her characters demonstrate a new stage in the representation of women in Kazakh prose.

In conclusion, R. Mukhanova's "physical trauma" and A. Kemelbayeva's "memory reflection" complement each other and are not just a lament for the past, but an artistic way of overcoming trauma and healing the national spirit. The study is based on the concept of the "subaltern" by postcolonial critic G. Spivak, and the works of Cathy Caruth and Dominick LaCapra on the theory of trauma (Trauma Studies).