The Emergence of Zero Text in Kazakh Poetry

Abstract

Contemporary Kazakh poetry has undergone transformations in poetic form, driven by experimental, creative exploration. One significant trend is the literary text compactification. In contemporary poetic practice the verbal content, also blank spaces, gaps, lacunae acquire poetic meaning. These non-verbal elements function as structural, experimental devices expanding poetry’s expressive capacity. Study aims to analyze the blank spaces poetic function in contemporary Kazakh poetry. Works by Magzhan Zhumabayev, Koshym Nogay (Baybota Serikbayuly), Gulnar Salykbay, Erlan Zhunis, Alisher Alimzhan served as the primary material; the analysis employs close reading, comparative, analytical-synthetic methods, reader-response theory principles, emphasizing the text and audience interaction. Findings indicate that blank spaces, intervals in Kazakh poetry disrupt conventional poetic norms and infuse poetic thought with multilayered meaning, also deepen its philosophical resonance by serving as mechanisms of concealment, as the deliberate omission of a lover’s or woman’s name, while simultaneously inviting active reader interpretation and engagement, enriching the emotional, scenic fabric of the text, particularly within the love poetry context, where romantic relationships are depicted in harmonious alignment with natural world elements, including the nocturnal Kazakh steppe, and ultimately functioning as formal innovation instruments within the traditional poetic systems. Moreover, such poetic strategies enable the encoding of cultural and social meanings for instance, conveying the humorous nuances in relationships between a bride and her brother-in-law through a culturally embedded “secret” language rooted in Kazakh tradition; used in experimental efforts to visualize children’s poetry by shaping poetic lines into graphic forms, such as symbolic figures outlines. Blank spaces further transmit the inner energy of language its poetic force, or poetic entelechy and function as markers of historical continuity, cultural memory, and globalization effects on contemporary Kazakh literature. The author hopes that this study will support a deeper understanding, further scholarly engagement with zero poetics phenomenon in Kazakh literary discourse.

Keywords: Zero text, Poetics of Text, Kazakh Poetry, Experimental poetry, Calligram, Reader interpretation.