Monstrous femininity in kazakh folklore: delineating normative and transgressive womanhood

Abstract

Representations of the feminine as monstrous can be found in any type of narrative from ancient mythology to modern video games. Witches, succubi, female vampires, sirens, furies, mermaids, possessed women, ghost women, etc. represent the female body and womanhood as Other, grotesque and abject, as well as demonise women who live in transgression to normative constraints of a patriarchal society. This work looks at the images of the monstrous-feminine within the Kazakh fairy tale: Zhalmauyz Kempir, Zheztyrnaq and Albasty—and argues that how these characters are presented, situated and treated in their narratives can tell us what is deemed acceptable and what is considered as violation of the established gender order. Through examining these characters, the conditions for the different representations and roles they inhabit, as well as comparing them to idealised positive heroines, this work seeks to identify how femininity and womanhood are represented in Kazakh folklore, and what those representations can tell us about gender roles, relations, and attitudes to female desire, power, autonomy and transgression of social norms.