Hybrid identity and the image of the native land in Kazakhstan Russian language poetry

Abstract

The article is devoted to the problem of the world image in the poetry of modern Kazakhstan Russian-speaking poets. This problem is closely related to the authors’ self-identity. The Russian language is chosen by authors of various ethnicities: Russians, Kazakhs and Poles. Kazakhstan has historically developed as a multi-ethnic region; in post-Soviet times, Russian is largely preserved as a language of interethnic communication. The article identifies and analyses the following components that make up the hybrid identity of Russian-speaking authors: their memory of ethnic roots, sociocultural identity, regional identity and civic identity. It is shown that such features as transborderness and transculturation, characteristic of the “nomadic” subject of modern poetry, fully correspond to the type of nomadic culture that has long been established on the territory of the Great Steppe. Hybrid identity in the poetry of Kazakhstan Russian-speaking authors determines its polysubjectivity, interaction of voices and dialogue among speech zones of different subjects, giving rise to the effect of the lyrical poetry “romanization”, which affects the prosaization of the verse form. Of the genre varieties, the most characteristic one is the form of poetic conversation. A striking feature of this poetry is the lyrical hero’s self-irony and the active use of intertextuality. Different components found in the authors’ inner self does not as much create a conflict situation as it allows them to avoid thinking in rigid binary oppositions, without removing a critical view of both today’s Kazakhstan and Russia.