Some issues of the study of the karakalpak epos by the comparative-typological method

Аннотация: Статья посвящается вопросу научного сравнительно-типологического изучения каракалпакского эпоса. Сравнительный анализ фольклорных произведений народов, носителей разносистемных языков позволяет глубже познакомиться с примерами их народного творчества. Компаративное изучение фольклора разных народов является весомым вкладом в глобальное литературоведение. В статье использован передовой опыт виднейших литературоведов стран Востока и Запада. Автор статьи выявила общие и специфические особенности каракалпакского эпоса на основе сопоставления с эпосом других народов.

Summary: The article deals with the issues of comparative-typological study of the Karakalpak epos. The comparative analysis of folklore of nations with different language systems let us get acquainted closer with the best works of folklore. The comparative study of folklore of different peoples is considered to be a great contribution to the development of global literary study. The author of the article distinguishes the common and specific peculiarities of the Karakalpak epos comparing it with the epos of other peoples and using the leading experience of prominent scholars of the East and West.

Typological peculiarities of folklore and literature of different peoples, their similar features and national peculiarities in the social-political life, the comparative-historical typological method have been studied in the works by N. I. Konrad, V. M. Jirmunskiy, V. Y. Propp, N. B. Putilov, E. M. Meletinsky, I. G. Neupokoev, A. Koniratbaev, R. Berdibaev, T. Mirzoev, B. Sarimsokov, Kh. T. Sagitov, K. Maksetov, S. Bakhadirova and others. These scholars state that the typology in folklore and literature is the repetition of the characters’ actions, attitudes, details and phenomena that appeared in the result of objective factors in nature and society [1, p. 94].

S. Baxadirova suggests learning the typology of folklore distinguishing it in the following way:

1. image, motive, plot, typology of expressive means

2. typology of genres

3. typology of folklore processes

4. typology of relation of folklore to the reality [1, p. 94].

P. Berdibaev determines three types of typology in the folklore study [2, p. 324]. Here, as an example of historical-genetic typology we can mention the typology of national versions of the epos «Alpamis». But this question hadn’t been investigated in folklore study of the Turkic peoples till the 50-s of the XX-th century. At the beginning of the 1950-s there were some subjective views about the epos as the work about the life of bays-feudals. In order to clear up these statements there appeared the necessity to investigate all the national versions from the typological point of view [1, p. 215].

A. K. Borovkov investigated these topics in his article «Issues of study of the epos of the Turkic-speaking peoples of Central Asia and Kazakhstan». He criticized the subjective nihilistic points of view about the epos «Alpamis» of such scholars as A. Abdunabiev, A. Stepanov. On the basis of the thorough analysis of images and plot motives he proved that the epos was the result of the historical-genetic and historical-cultural typological relations in the national versions [3, p. 66-100].

Another outstanding scholar who investigated the typology of the epos «Alpamis» was V. M. Jirmunskiy. In the article «The genesis and historizm of the epos «Alpamis»» he analyzed all the national versions of the epos with «The book by Korkit ata» and came to the conclusion that the origin of the plot of all the national versions is connected with the «Song about Bamen-Bayrak» in «The book by Korkit ata» [4, p. 26-61].

V. M. Jirmunskiy also made the comparative-typological investigation of the epos «Edige». He deals with this issue in the part «The epos about Edige» in his work devoted to the study of the Turkic heroic epos. In this work he compared and investigated Nogay, Bashkir, Tatar, Karakalpak, Kazakh and Uzbek variants of the epos and came to the conclusion that they all have the same origin. He tried to prove that all the national versions had the description of the same historical period, the same events: the fight between the khans of Golden Horde and Maveranakhr, the fight of Amir Timur and Edige against Tokhtamis with the purpose of building the Turkic state in the XIV-XV-th centuries.

The typological similarities and differences in the national versions of the eposes «Alpamis» and «Edige» were investigated by I. Sagitov [5, p. 179-293] and K. Maksetov [6, p. 237-248]. The typological peculiarities of these eposes were continued to be investigated seriously only in the 1990-s. The following works deserve attention: the manuscript «Kitabi dedem Korkit», some articles «The Karakalpak version of the epos «Alpamis»», «The peculiarities of the plot structure of the Kazakh and Tatar versions of the Karakalpak epos» by S. Bakhadirova [7, p. 39-69] and the monograph «The genesis and genre peculiarities of the epos «Edige»» by K. Allambergenov devoted to the study of issues of typology of national versions [8, p. 3-16, 39-69]. In the above-mentioned research works much attention is paid to the typology of traditional motives in the epos.

We can see the typological features of the Karakalpak epos in the eposes of other relative Turkic peoples. For example, the typology of traditional motives in the Karakalpak-Khorezm eposes and fairy-tales show the historical-genetic links of the epos of relative peoples. There are traditional motives in the epic heritage of two peoples in the plot of the epos: the birth of a child in the family, bringing up of children, marriage and wedding ceremony. In both Karakalpak and Khorezm epos one of the main topics is the motive of childlessness.

V. Y. Propp emphasized this motive of childlessness as a peculiar epic element in epic folklore [9, p. 107].

If we examine the content of the Karakalpak epos and other Turkic versions the motive of childlessness is expressed by different details: the belief to God asking to give a child, toxicos to something, the ancestors’ help, the realization of some customs connected with totem, the birth of a child from something saint and strong, sunny rays, mother’s pregnancy and other details.

The typology of traditional motives in the eposes shows the same ancient roots and relativeness of the Turkic peoples on the one hand, and the basis of the epos’s plot- the description of real life, on the other hand.

The famous Kazakh folklorist A. Koniratbaev, taking into account the historical-genetic typological connections, emphasizes that «When we investigate the history of folklore, it’s necessary to study comparatively the epos of the whole Central Asia, Altay and Eastern peoples» [10, p. 88].

As for the issue of typologic similarities, we should take into consideration the folklore and literature of the people who don’t have any genetic, relative connections. These typological peculiarities can appear in the result of differences in the language, blood and religion. They can also appear in the result of the same political-economical and cultural level of the West-East peoples, the cultural connections and influence. For example, there are many similar typological features in the Bulgarian, Vizantian and Turkic folklore. It may be explained by two reasons: the conquering policy of Turkey on the one hand, and the people’s living not far from each other on the other hand [11, p. 343].

The first scholar who investigated the principle of historical method and historical-typological features in the literary-artistic works, who used the principle of historical method in practice in Central Asia and Turkic folklore was Sh. Walikhanov. Having studied the actions and events in the epos in connection with the history of migratory countries, he came to the conclusion that the historical method was widely used in the eposes of the Turkic peoples at the period of Golden Horde and Nogay. As an example, he speaks about the fight between the khan of Golden Horde Tokhtamis and edige, the friendship between Amir Timur and Edige. To sum up the typology issues of Karakalpak epic folklore is uninvestigated.

To sum up, we can state that the study of typological peculiarities of the Karakalpak epos comparatively with the epos of the Turkic and other peoples remains one of the actual issues in folklore today.

References

1. Baxadirova S., Akhmetov S. Concise Dictionary of folklore terms. – Nukus: «Bilim», 1994.
2. Berdibaev R. Epos is the wealth of the country. –Alma-Ata: «Rawan», 1995.
3. Issues of the epos’s study of the CIC peoples. – Moscow, 1958.
4. About the epos «Alpamis». – Tashkent, 1959.
5. Sagitov I. The heroic epos of the Karakalpak people. – Nukus: «Karakalpakstan», 1986.
6. Maksetov K. Karakalpak folklore. – Nukus: «Bilim», 1996.
7. Baxadirova S. Thoughts and ideas about «Kitabi dedem Korkit», «Koblan», «Edige» and modern literature. – Nukus: «Karakalpakstan», 1992.
8. Allambergenov K. Karakalpak national epos «Edige». – Nukus: «Bilim», 1995.
9. Propp V.Y. Morphology of a fairy-tale. – Moscow, 1969.
10. Koniratbaev A. Turkicology and epos. – Alma-Ata: «Gilim», 1987.
11. Khotamov N., Sarimsokov B. Russian-Uzbek dictionary in literature study. – Tashkent: «Ukituvchi», 1983.
12. Margulan E. Chokan and Manas. – Alma-Ata: «Jaziushi», 1972.

Материал поступил в редакцию 09.03.2017
© Алламбергенова Г. К., 2017