MONGABAY.COM
Mongabay.com seeks to raise interest in and appreciation of wild lands and wildlife, while examining the impact of emerging trends in climate, technology, economics, and finance on conservation and development (more)
WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
|
|
Tajikistan
Index
As they did during the Soviet era, educated Tajiks define their
cultural heritage broadly, laying claim to the rich legacy of the
supraethnic culture of Central Asia and other parts of the Islamic world
from the eastern Mediterranean to India. Soviet rule institutionalized
Western art forms, publishing, and mass media, some elements of which
subsequently attracted spontaneous support in the republic. However, since
the beginning of Soviet rule in the 1920s, the media and the arts always
have been subject to political constraints.
Literature
Despite long-standing Soviet efforts to differentiate between the
Persian speakers of Central Asia and those elsewhere, Tajiks in Tajikistan
describe all of the major literary works written in Persian until the
twentieth century as Tajik, regardless of the ethnicity and native region
of the author. In Soviet times, such claims were not merely a matter of
chauvinism but a strategy to permit Tajiks some contact with a culture
that was artificially divided by state borders. Nevertheless, very little
Persian literature was published in Cyrillic transcription in the Soviet
era.
Three writers dominated the first generation of Soviet Tajik
literature. Sadriddin Aini (1878-1954), a Jadidist writer and educator who
turned communist, began as a poet but wrote primarily prose in the Soviet
era. His works include three major novels dealing with social issues in
the region and memoirs that depict life in the Bukhoro Khanate. Aini
became the first president of Tajikistan's Academy of Sciences.
Abu'l-Qasem Lahuti (1887-1957; in Tajik, Abdulqosim Lohuti) was an
Iranian poet who emigrated to the Soviet Union for political reasons and
eventually settled in Tajikistan. He wrote both lyric poetry and "socialist
realist" verse. Another poet, Mirzo Tursunzoda (1911-77), collected
Tajik oral literature, wrote poetry of his own about social change in
Tajikistan, and turned out various works on popular political themes of
the moment. Since the generation that included those three writers,
Tajikistan has produced numerous poets, novelists, short story writers,
and playwrights.
Data as of March 1996
|
|