Söylem Filoloji Dergisi

Öz

Since Kyrgyz literature had no written form until 1917, the genre of the novel emerged later in Kyrgyz literature compared to world literature. There were almost 100 novels during the period starting from 1936 when the first novel, Uzak Col, was published, until the date of independence. Although most of the works in question were affected by the Marxist-Leninist ideology, these works also reflected some ideas and thoughts that were far from the Soviet ideology. However, no matter what idea and thought the Soviet-era Kyrgyz novel was based on, it was thought to be born and developed depending on an ideological understanding. Many writers were to be the voice of the dominant authority, using literature as a propaganda tool. However, despite this necessity, some could reflect their ideological worlds in their works, albeit implicitly. Thus, ideology revealed the hegemonic discourse. Therefore, through the hegemonic discourse of the authority or the author, the genre of the novel became the object of ideology/knowledge. In particular, the tendency of the Soviet ideology to dominate the other or the author's production of dominant ideological discourse in the text was fictionalized through femininity/masculinity and ideal/other heroes. The ideal femininity/masculinity was related to the construction of nations/national identity. For this reason, it is important to examine how masculinity, which represents the symbolic progress and order of society and culture in the Soviet-era Kyrgyz novel, was conceived within the hegemonic discourse. The present study explored the masculine domination of the period, idealized masculinity discourse, bodily fictions, and masculine ideals and the opposites of these ideals.