FOLKLORISM, HISTORICAL MEMORY, AND NATIONAL IDENTITY IN DZHUBATKAN MURATBAEV'S HISTORICAL NOVEL DIGIRIQ

Abstract

This qualitative study examines how folklorism functions in Dzhubatkan Muratbaev's historical novel Digiriq. Rather than attempting an exhaustive inventory of every folklore element in the novel, the study analyzes two representative passages: Sasik biy's appeal for political unity and the embedded legend of Korkyt Ata, Balgali Dawlen, and Karmakchi Ata. Drawing on Karakalpak scholarship on the relationship between folklore and written literature, as well as contemporary approaches to folklorism and cultural memory, the analysis combines close textual reading with folkloristic and structural-semantic interpretation. The findings show that Sasik biy is constructed through an epic-like model of the wise communal leader, whereas the Karmakchi Ata episode functions as an etiological naming legend shaped by mythopoetic motifs. In both cases, folklore is transformed into a narrative resource rather than inserted as decorative ethnographic material. It supports characterization, encodes communal ethics, preserves culturally meaningful memory, and mediates between historical narration and the people's remembered past. The study distinguishes literary historical memory from documentary historical verification and therefore does not claim to establish the factual accuracy of the legends represented in the novel. Its contribution lies in a focused functional analysis of how Muratbaev recontextualizes oral-traditional forms within Karakalpak historical prose.