DUSHANBE, February 26, 2009, Asia-Plus — An international two-day forum entitled “Chingiz Aitmatov and the Present” is opening in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan today, according to the Ministry of Culture (MoC).
The event, devoted to the results of Year of Literature and Reading in CIS and the 80th birthday of internationally known writer Chingiz Aitmatov, is bringing together state and public figures, cultural workers, scientists, representatives of public unions and diplomatic corps. The MoC Abdughaffor Abdujabborov and some other representatives of the ministry are representing Tajikistan at the forum.
The decision on conducting the forum was adopted during the CIS summit that was held in Dushanbe in October 2008.
Chingiz Aitmatov (1928-2008) was an author who wrote in both Russian and Kyrgyz. He was the best known figure in Kyrgyzstan literature. Aitmatov belonged to the post-war generation of writers. His output before Jamila was not significant, a few short stories and a short novel called Face to Face. But it was Jamila that came to prove the author”s work. Louis Aragon described the novelette as the world”s most beautiful love story, raising it even above Rudyard Kipling’s World’s Most Beautiful Love Story. Aitmatov”s representative works also include the short novels Farewell, Gulsary! The White Ship, The Day Lasts More Than a Hundred Years, and The Scaffold.
Aitmatov was honored in 1963 with the Lenin Prize for Jamila and later he was awarded a State prize for Farewell, Gulsary!. Aitmatov”s art was glorified by admirers. Even critics of Aitmatov mentioned high quality of his novels.
Aitmatov”s work has some elements that are unique specifically to his creative process. His work drew on folklore, not in the ancient sense of it; rather, he tried to recreate and synthesize oral tales in the context of contemporary life. This is prevalent in his work; in nearly every story he refers to a myth, a legend, or a folktale.
In The Day Lasts More Than a Hundred Years a poetic legend about a young captive turned into a mankurt serves a tragic allegory and becomes a significant symbolic expression of the philosophy of the novel. The term mankurt comes from a Turkic myth popularized by Aitmatov in his novel, a philosophical tale about what can happen to people if they forget their motherland, language, and history.
