Detail Publikasi
Abstrak
Encompassing collective memory as well cultural identity and social values, Central Asian oral epics are usually preserved among different ethnicities in multiple forms. Epic Munliq-Zarliq in the Karakalpak and Kazakh traditions Despite being a commonly performed and published body of work, comparative scholarship has yet to systematically investigate structural, thematic, and linguistic differences between these traditions, and whether they exhibit historical layering and the national particularities attached to national traditions. It uses comparative textual analysis of manuscripts, published collections, and oral testimonies to examine similarities and differences in plot, motifs, versification, and characterization of the Karakalpak and Kazak versions of this text. Similarities in story elements include childlessness, abandonment, animal fosterage, and reunion, whereas most episodes, character representations and poetic patterns differ. The Kazakh work is more sparse and spiritual, while the bulkier Karakalpak texts relate in more detail local cultural elements. The positions these variants are given within the Nogai history, while following on from later folk elaborations, reveal how a shared epic narrative became subject to national specificities of the concepts of justice, family and the playing out of feudal relations. Intermingling regional, local, and transnational perspectives, the book contributes to comparative folklore studies and shows how epics can act both as communal blanket stories from a region as well as a means for localized identity, performance, and social commentary, suggesting the necessity for further field-recordings and performative analyses.