Parables from the Past: The Prose Fiction of Chingiz AitmatovJames Mozur traces the development of Chingiz Aitmatov's fiction from the early 1950s through the mid-1970s, including Farewell, Gul'sary!, The White Ship, The Day Lasts More Than a Hundred Years, and The Place of the Skull. He discusses each major work against the political and cultural background in which it was created and thereby widens our understanding of post-Stalinist Soviet literature. Chingiz Aitmatov was born in Kirghizstan in 1928 and published his first stories in the 1950s in both Russian and Kirghiz. He soon took his place as spokesman for the progressive wing of official Soviet Russian literature, striving for greater openness in Soviet letters and for a new approach toward diverse nationalities. Unlike many other writers, Aitmatov continued to flourish in the cultural tumult following the collapse of the communist state, being appointed to government posts by Gorbachev and becoming Soviet ambassador to Luxembourg in 1991. |
Contents
3 | |
1 Aitmatov and Kirghizstan | 11 |
2 First Steps | 25 |
3 Farewell Gulsary Coming to Terms with the Stalinist Past | 39 |
Outcry in a Soulless World | 56 |
Confronting and Transcending Soviet Reality | 75 |
Defining Soviet Mankurtization | 96 |
Other editions - View all
Parables from the Past: The Prose Fiction of Chingiz Aitmatov Joseph P. Mozur No preview available - 1994 |
Common terms and phrases
Aitmatov's fiction Aitmatov's novel Aleksandr Ana-Beiit Anninskii appearance Asian Avdii Bishkek Central Asia characters Chingiz Aitmatov Christ classic socialist Cloud of Genghis cultural Daisaku Ikeda Day Lasts death Deer-mother depicted Dzhamilia Early Cranes Edigei epic epos expressed Farewell father folklore Frunze Genghis Khan glasnost Gul'sary Gul'sary's horse human Hundred idea ideological interview with author Iurii Iurii Trifonov Karagul Kazakh Kazangap killing Kirghiz Kirghizstan Kirisk kolkhoz Kuttybaev's legend literary Literaturnaia gazeta Manas mankurt matov's Molodaia gvardiia Momun moral Moscow myth narration narrative Nivkh novella Novyi Orozkul parabolic party past Piebald Piebald Dog Pilate Place Plakha political portrayal portrayed positive hero Pravda published readers republic role Russian Sheker Shevelev Skull Sobranie sochinenii sochinenii v trekh socialist realism Solzhenitsyn Soviet critics Soviet letters Soviet literature Soviet society Soviet Union Soviet writers spiritual Stalin steppe story subplot tamizdat Tanabai theme Torekul trekh tomakh Turkic University Village Prose Vladimir White Ship worldview