Mankurts of Abish and Aitmatov: Destruction of National Identity or Loss of Sanity?

Abstract

Comparative literature is a discipline that comparatively studies the interactions, similarities, and differences between different works. It is important to look at the works examined within the scope of Turkic world works of literature comparatively, based on this discipline, to identify common trends that emerged in certain periods and to make sound judgments by associating them with the conditions of the period. Turkic world writers, who benefited from the partial relaxation after the pressure of socialist realism since the 1960s, turned to narratives transmitted by oral culture, such as legends and epics, and adapted them to modern genres. Abish Kekilbayuli and Chingiz Aitmatov's reinterpretation of oral folk narratives about mankurtization in their works are noteworthy in this respect. Although both authors similarly describe the method of mankurtization, there are some differences in the positioning of this subject within the fictional integrity of the literary work and the purpose of fiction. In this study, the mankurt narratives in the short novel Küy or Melody and The Day Last More Than a Hundred Years will be examined comparatively and the similarities and differences between the two works will be revealed. Thus, it will be examined how the same material is constructed differently by following under the message to be emphasized.