Reference
- The Heroic Epic of Manas and Mukhtar Auezov’s Role in Its PopularizationThe article describes the contribution of Mukhtar Omarkhanovich Auezov to the popularization of the Kyrgyz heroic epic of Manas and the publication of its parts in the twentieth century. The purpose of the article is to determine the place of the famous monograph “The Kyrgyz heroic epic of Manas” by M. O. Auezov in a series of works on epic studies. Objectives of the article: to describe M. O. Auezov’s research dedicated to the Kyrgyz epic of Manas from the standpoint of defining the functions of manaschi (storyteller, poet, shaman) and the
preserved pre-Islamic cult of ancestors among the Kyrgyz; to substantiate M. O. Auezov in the aspect of Kyrgyz studies and Manas studies... - KyrgyzstanKyrgyzstan is a small, mountainous country in central Asia with a primarily Muslim population. Officially known as the Kyrgyz Republic, Kyrgyzstan borders Kazakhstan to the northwest and north, China to the southeast and south, and Tajikistan and Uzbekistan to the south and west. The country shares the densely populated Ferghana Valley with Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. High mountains divide Kyrgyzstan into two major parts, north and south. Its total land area is 74,055 square miles (191,801 square kilometers), which is about the size of South Dakota...
- Credo Reference This link opens in a new window
Credo Reference is an easy-to-use tool for starting research. Gather background information on your topic from hundreds of full-text encyclopedias, dictionaries, thesauri, quotations, and subject-specific titles, as well as 500,000+ images and audio files and over 1,000 videos.
Online Resources
- Anonymous, Manas: Columbia UniversityA fragment (in Persian) is dated to the end of the 15th or beginning of the 16th century, but an earlier version may have existed; the first written version of the epic is from the mid-19th century...
- Great Manas (The Statue of Manas)This sculpture is based on a Kyrgyz national icon, Manas the Great, which portrays the main protagonist of an important epic poem, “Epic of Manas.” The story is believed to be at least 300 years old, with the oldest written versions dating to the 18th century, but the Kyrgyz people believe the oral traditions of the story to be much older...
- The Kyrgyz epic Manas: UNESCO Digital LibraryThe epic Manas is a classic example of the oral poetic culture of nomads. It can be seen as an imaginary history of the Kyrgyz people, in which myths, fairytales, legends and histori-cal events are inextricably interwoven. It is a unique key to the folk memory of the Kyrgyz concerning the deeds and exploits of their ancestors; it is also their forebears’ legacy of honour and valour, of dignity and loyalty, and of love for their land, the land of their birth...
- Kyrgyz literature: BritannicaKyrgyz literature, the written works of the Kyrgyz people of Central Asia, most of whom live in Kyrgyzstan. A smaller population of Kyrgyz in China also produces works of literary significance...
Perspectives
The Oral Epic from Performance to Interpretation
This book focuses on the performance of oral epics and explores the significance of performance features for the interpretation of epic poetry. The leading question of the book is how the socio-cultural context of performance and the various performance elements contribute to the meaning of oral epics. This is a question which not only concerns epics collected from living oral tradition, but which is also of importance for the understanding of the epics of antiquity and the Middle Ages which originated and flourished in an oral milieu. The book is based on fieldwork in the still vibrant oral traditions of the Turkic peoples of Central Asia and Siberia. The discussion combines fieldwork with theory; it is not limited to Turkic epics but branches out into other oral traditions.