Oral folk literature (folklore) is the artistic heritage passed by word of mouth over centuries. It appeared before written literature and remained its inexhaustible source: works by Navoi, Qodiriy and Cho‘lpon are full of folklore images and proverbs. Folklore is a people’s "oral memory", preserving its history, customs, moral values and world view. The exam asks you to tell genres apart, know the characters of the dostons and distinguish proverbs from sayings.
§1. Features of folklore
Orality — created and performed orally, written down later.
Collective authorship — no specific author; each performer adds something.
Variation — one work exists in many versions (e.g. versions of «Alpomish» recorded from different bakhshis).
Tradition — set openings and endings: Bor ekan-u yo‘q ekan... ("Once there was, once there wasn’t..."), Murod-maqsadiga yetibdi ("and they achieved their wishes").
Performance — performers of dostons are called bakhshi (baxshi, also shoir, dostonchi); they sing to the dombra.
The author of a folklore work is the people; neither the folklorist who recorded it nor the bakhshi who performed it is the author.
§2. Dostons (folk epics)
A doston is a lyric-epic genre: prose alternates with verse, and a bakhshi sings it. Types:
Heroic — defence of the homeland, warrior heroes (alp): «Alpomish», some dostons of the «Go‘ro‘g‘li» cycle.
Romantic (love and adventure): «Ravshan», «Kuntug‘mish», «Malikai ayyor», «Orzigul».
Historical — based on real events: «Tulumbiy», «Oysuluv».
Book-derived — entered folk tradition from written sources.
«Alpomish» is the most famous heroic doston of the Uzbek people. Its 1000th anniversary was widely celebrated in 1999. One of the most complete versions is the one performed by Fozil Yo‘ldosh o‘g‘li.
Alpomish (Hakimbek) — a hero (alp) of the Qo‘ng‘irot tribe, the protagonist.
Barchinoy — his beloved, later his wife; wise and faithful.
Boybo‘ri — Alpomish’s father; Boysari — Barchin’s father; the two are brothers, and after their quarrel Boysari migrates to the Kalmyk land.
Boychibor — Alpomish’s horse.
Qorajon — a Kalmyk warrior who becomes Alpomish’s friend.
Toychixon — the Kalmyk ruler; Surxayil kampir — a cunning old woman who plots against the hero.
Tovka oyim — helps Alpomish in the dungeon (zindon).
Ultontoz — the tyrant who seizes power while Alpomish is away; Qultoy — the loyal shepherd; Yodgor — Alpomish’s son.
Idea: unity of the people, patriotism, loyalty, the triumph of justice.
The «Go‘ro‘g‘li» cycle — many dostons about Go‘ro‘g‘li and his sons (Avaz, Hasan); Go‘ro‘g‘li’s horse is G‘irot.
Worked example
Identify the genre of «Alpomish» and justify it.
Main theme — defending the people, a hero’s courage, the struggle with the Kalmyks.
The hero is a warrior of superhuman strength (as a child he draws an ancestral bow that nobody else could draw).
Form — prose and verse sung by a bakhshi → lyric-epic.
Answer: a heroic doston (not romantic, although a love motif is present).
§3. Folk tale, myth-legend, historical legend
Folk tale (ertak) — prose about invented events; set opening Bor ekan-u yo‘q ekan... Types: animal tales (animals talk like people; the fox symbolises cunning), magic tales (magic objects, devs, fairies, dragons: «Zumrad va Qimmat»), everyday tales (life situations, trickery, satire).
Legend / myth (afsona) — about fantastic, supernatural events; often explains the origin of the world or natural phenomena.
Historical legend (rivoyat) — a story tied to a real place, person or event (origin of a town’s name, a great figure).
In a folk tale fiction is obvious; a rivoyat is told as if true and is linked to a real place name.
Worked example
"Long ago a king decided to build a fortress and chose a site; the village got its name from the spring that gushed out there." Which genre is this? (The text was written for this lesson.)
The event is tied to a real place — the name of a village.
The story explains where the name came from and is told as if true.
There are no magic objects, no divs and no formulaic opening (Bor ekan-u yo‘q ekan), so it is not a folk tale.
Answer: a rivoyat (a place-name legend).
§4. Songs
Work songs — farming, herding, crafts; they set the rhythm of work.
Seasonal songs: the coming of spring — «Boychechak»; calling for rain — «Sust xotin».
Lyrical songs — love, longing; terma — a bakhshi’s didactic verses.
Folk songs are mostly composed in barmoq, a syllabic metre with an equal number of syllables per line (often 7, 8 or 11). They are full of repetition, refrains and forms of address (yor-yor, alla), which hold the melody together and make the songs easy to remember.
§5. Small genres
Proverb (maqol) — a complete judgement, conclusion or lesson; often two-part and rhymed: Mehnat qilsang, rohat ko‘rasan. (If you work, you will enjoy comfort.) Bilim — aql chirog‘i. (Knowledge is the lamp of the mind.)
Saying (matal) — not a complete judgement but a figurative expression: Tuyani shamol uchirsa, echkini osmonda ko‘r. (If the wind blows away a camel, look for the goat in the sky.) It is usually used inside a sentence.
Riddle (topishmoq) — an object described figuratively: Bir qozonda ikki xil osh (two dishes in one pot — an egg).
Anecdote (latifa) — a short funny story; the main character is Nasriddin Afandi.
Askiya — a contest of wit based on wordplay, especially popular in the Fergana Valley.
Tongue twister (tez aytish) — a short text built on repeated sounds to train pronunciation.
Maqol (proverb) — a complete judgement (a sentence); matal (saying) — a figurative expression (part of a sentence).
Worked example
Which is a proverb and which a saying: «Ko‘p yashagan bilmas, ko‘p yurgan bilar» and «Tuyani shamol uchirsa, echkini osmonda ko‘r»?
The first gives a complete judgement — experience comes not from age but from seeing much of the world; it contains a conclusion and a lesson.
The second is not a complete judgement but a figurative description of a situation ("if the wind carries off a camel, look for the goat in the sky": if the strong could not manage, the weak certainly cannot); it is usually used inside a sentence.
Answer: the first is a proverb (maqol), the second a saying (matal).
§6. Bakhshis, schools of epic singing and the influence of folklore on written literature
Dostons were handed down from master to pupil over generations. Different regions developed their own schools of epic performance: Bulung‘ur, Qo‘rg‘on, Narpay, Shahrisabz and Khorezm. Khorezmian dostons (for example «Oshiq G‘arib va Shohsanam») are more often about love and are performed with an instrumental ensemble.
Famous bakhshis: Fozil Yo‘ldosh o‘g‘li, Ergash Jumanbulbul o‘g‘li, Po‘lkan shoir, Islom shoir Nazar o‘g‘li.
In the 20th century folklorists recorded dostons from bakhshis and published them; that is how works such as «Alpomish» have reached us.
Influence on written literature: Navoi’s poems contain motifs of folk legends; Qodiriy’s characters speak in proverbs and sayings; Cho‘lpon and Hamza used the tunes of folk songs (the barmoq metre); Chingiz Aitmatov built folk legends into his novels (the mankurt, the Horned Mother Deer).
The difference between folklore and written literature: a written work has a definite author and a fixed text, whereas a folklore work changes a little with every performance.
Check yourself
What type of doston is «Kuntug‘mish»?
What is the name of Alpomish’s horse?
Ko‘p yashagan bilmas, ko‘p yurgan bilar. — proverb or saying?
Who seizes power while Alpomish is away?
What is the song sung to put a child to sleep called?
A story about the origin of a real town’s name belongs to which genre?
Which bakhshi performed one of the most complete versions of «Alpomish»?
What is the name of Go‘ro‘g‘li’s horse?
Common mistakes
Confusing proverb and saying: a proverb is a complete judgement, a saying is a figurative expression.
Calling «Alpomish» a romantic doston (it is heroic).
Attributing an author to a folklore work (the bakhshi is a performer, not the author).
Not distinguishing afsona from rivoyat.
Calling yor-yor a work song (it is a wedding ritual song).
Assuming a folklore work has one "correct text" like a written one (variation is natural in folklore).