Genres of Kazakh Folklore in the Repertoire of Contemporary Kazakhstani Poetry

Abstract

Reflecting shifting social realities, literature continually integrates new information into established genre categories and forms. A paradox in the evolution of Kazakh folklore genres within the literary renewal of the late 20th and early 21st centuries lies in the pronounced tendency toward genre memory, which functions similarly to a rhizome. In the poetic experiment of a modern author, as a rule, one or more national genre worldviews are revived, genres of oral and written literature enter into communication. This process gives rise to a new genre model that integrates the accumulated folkloric and genre-based experience of world-building, thereby reinforcing the foundation of the national worldview. A key distinguishing feature of such texts is their polymorphic nature, grounded in the remarkably fluid and interconnected content of oral poetic traditions. As a result, the cultural knowledge embedded in each genre-based text turns every work into an experimental form, requiring scholars to have an in-depth understanding of Kazakh folklore.

The relevance of this study lies in its examination of how Kazakh folklore genres are revived and reinterpreted within the genre experiments of contemporary poetry.

The aim of the study is to identify the current genre repertoire of modern Kazakh poetry, to analyze literary texts in terms of preserving their genre categories. The study draws on genre-based experiments by over 50 Kazakhstani poets.

The methodological framework is based on poststructuralist and semiotic approaches to genre analysis, employing cluster-based, holistic, and selective methods for examining literary texts.

Keywords: genre, Kazakh folklore, poetry, modernity, transformation.