The narrative essay in Russian and Uzbek literature: lyro-epic vs lyro-dramatic

The notions of the lyro-epic and lyro-dramatic principle in prose can serve both as genre generalizations or as an indication of the convergence of different traditions within national literature, as well as the specification of national literature at a point of crisis of the novel genre. During the unprecedented events of the collapse of the Soviet Union and the new wave of postcolonial pursuits in world culture, the short story becomes a site not only of narrative but also of genre experimentation: it captures an ever-changing modernity, with the clash of narratives, qualities of inner speech and temporalities forming new configurations of combining epic, lyrical and dramatic moments in each story. This article uses the example of works by Russian (Jan Goltzman, Sergei Soloukh, etc.) and Uzbek (Shukur Xolmirzaev, Isajon Sulton, Muhammad Sharif, Ulugbek Hamdam) prose writers to show how the development of the lyric and epic element in Russian literature corresponds to the development of the lyric and dramatic element in Uzbek literature. The Russian story is largely dominated by simple allegory, which makes it possible to reduce the complex experience of the past to a set of successive affects. In the Uzbek story, complex allegory dominates, determining the relationship of plot twists and traditional images. It is traced in detail how the work of complex allegory determines the position of the author and the hero, the system of identifications and reactualization of national heritage in the global postcolonial context. The question is raised about the connection of this distribution of genre patterns with the principles of the organization of social life as well as the understanding of the subject of the speech. In Russian literature this subject is a person from the intelligentsia, who inherits the advances of Russian classical literature in depicting the inner world and the challenges of the present. In Uzbek literature this subject is a modern person in the broad sense, who knows how to find a common language with different social groups and who draws on tradition as a source of this common language, rather than of certain emotional experiences.