Narrative and Genre Structure of the Kazakh Epic Tradition: A Comparative Study of Mashhur Zhusip Kopeyev’s Epic Poems
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17507/tpls.1610.11Keywords:
Kazakh epic, epic, narrative structure, linguistic model, Mashkhur Zhusip KopeyevAbstract
This article examines the narrative and genre structure of the Kazakh epic tradition through a comparative analysis of Mashkhur Zhusip Kopeyev’s epic poems Gulshat-Sherizat, Shaytannyn Saudasy (The Devil’s Trade), Gibratnama, and Bayannama. The research aims to identify dominant narrative models and to determine their relationship with linguistic patterns in epic texts. The study applies an integrated methodological framework combining narratological analysis, comparative literary analysis, and linguistic stylistics. The results reveal four dominant narrative models in the analyzed corpus: romantic, didactic, philosophical, and social. Each model is consistently associated with a specific linguistic dominant: similes and epithets in romantic narratives, religious and moral vocabulary in didactic texts, symbolic language in philosophical narratives, and repetitive formulaic expressions in social narratives. The findings demonstrate a stable correlation between narrative structure and linguistic organization, where linguistic elements function as structural components shaping genre-specific meaning. The study contributes to the field by proposing a unified narrative-linguistic model for analyzing epic texts and by introducing a systematic approach to the structural interpretation of the Kazakh epic tradition. It expands the scope of Kazakh literary studies by integrating it into contemporary international narratology and discourse-oriented research.
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