Yılmaz BACAKLI

Identification is the main necessity for both individuals and societies. If identification comes true by the way of individual’s or society’s examining themselves, the results acquired by emergent datas create invidual or collective identity. Among these identities, especially collective identity is formed on a cultural ground which essentially has ethnic and national bonds. This identity is formed as a result of society’s seeking of belonging and includes disintegration from other collective identities. In this sense, society’s view of ‘other’ collective identities except for their own forms ‘image’. Process of identity formation takes a long time for societies. Societies effort to act through objective essences in revealing identity. On the contrary, identity noticeably has subjective property as the society itself makes the definition. ‘Image’ is formed by looking prejudice, stereotype and cliches about opposite society. Written texts and especially novels are ideal means for producing and spreading collective identity and image. In narrative texts, auther shares rich identity and image elements by means of characters and events, related to society which the work belongs to and has many contacts with. In his novel named ‘Ey, Dünya Ey!’ Beksultan Nurjekeulı, one of the master authors of modern Kazakh literatüre, narrates how Kazakh Turks struggled with Russians from the beginning to the end of 20th century, within 75 years time. He wrote this novel in 2016 by utilising historical documents. In this study, as a collective identity form, how Kazakh identity is enbraced and how Russian image, which heavily effects the formation of this identity, reflects on this work is going to be explained.

Keywords: Kazakh literatüre, Kazakh identity, Russian image, Beksultan Nurjekeulı, novel