Issue 1 - Nation-Building Narratives in the Kazakh Literature Curriculum for 11th Graders and Their Moral Towards Women

Abstract

This paper takes as a subject for study the textbook for the governmental program in teaching Kazakh literature to 11th graders, looking at Smagul Elubay’s Hansulu and Talasbek Asemkulov’s Bektory female characters, and tries to investigate them through the theoretical framework on nation-building (Brubaker, Abashin, Anderson) and gender studies. These literary pieces were analysed according to the language utilized, the roles of main characters, their behavior and perspectives, and the issues raised in the course of the storytelling. The goal is to explore how moral narratives towards women are presented to the youth in the process of nation-building. There are brief summaries provided of the excerpts. The concepts of pa’kness (sinlessness) and idealized heroine are applied as a parallel for the stories about Hansulu and Bektory. This work eventually considers a modern woman in a world of western-style global norms competing with traditional ones, arguing for the search of balance between the two.