Creating Culture in (Post) Socialist Central Asia

This book brings together historical and ethnographic research from Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, and Xinjiang, in order to explore how individuals and communities work to create and maintain forms of 'culture' in contexts of ideological repression and erasure. Across Inner Central Asia, in both China and the Soviet Union, while ethnic culture was on one hand lauded and promoted, it was simultaneously folklorized in the face of broader projects of socialist modernity. How do local intellectuals, cultural organizers, and performers work to negotiate their own forms and understandings of cultural meaning within the institutions and frameworks of a long twentieth century? How does scholarly attention to cultural production, tradition, and performance help to inform our understanding of (ethnic) nations not as given, but as coming into being?

Autorentext

Ali men is Professor of History and Director of the Oral History Program in California State University, Long Beach, USA.

Ananda Breed is Professor in Theatre in the School of Fine and Performing Arts at the University of Lincoln, UK. Eva-Marie Dubuisson is Assistant Professor of Linguistic Anthropology in the Department of Languages, Linguistics, and Literatures at Nazarbayev University, Kazakhstan.

Inhalt

1. Introduction by Ananda Breed and Ali Igmen.- 2. Liminal States: Dreams, Environmental Aesthetics, and Performance in Kyrgyzstan during and after the Soviet Era by Ali Igmen.- 3. Epic Performances in Central Asia: Negotiating between Past and Present by Ananda Breed.- 4. Poets of the People: Learning to Make Culture in Kazakhstan by Eva-Marie Dubuisson.- 5. The Kara Kirghiz Must Develop Separately: Ishenally Arabaev (1881-1933) and His Project of the Kyrgyz Nation by Jipar Duishembieva.- 5. Lament in an Affluent Era: Cultural Politics of Kazakh Life Cycle Poems in Xinjiang ****by Guldana Salimjan.- 6. Conclusion: Interweaving Texts.