Literary review of Aitmatov’s work. A positive hero in the works of C.T. Aitmatova Jamilya analysis

Composition

Worldwide famous writer Chingiz Torekulovich Aitmatov does not need to be introduced to readers - millions of his admirers live all over the world. If you still need it, turn to his books.
There are writers whose every work becomes an event in cultural life country, the subject of heated debate and deep thought. The work of Chingiz Aitmatov is convincing evidence of this.
Appeared in 1958 in the magazine “ New world“The story “Jamilya,” small in volume but significant in content, bright in imaginative thinking and mastery of execution, was a signal that a man of amazingly original talent had come to literature from the Kyrgyz steppes.
Chekhov wrote: “What is talented is new.” These words can be fully attributed to Ch. Aitmatov’s stories “Dzhamila”, “White Steamer”, “Farewell, Gyulsary!”, “Topolek in a Red Scarf” and others. Only an exceptionally gifted nature can combine a truly folkloric beginning and innovative perception modern life. Already the story “Jami-la”, sung by the writer freely, in one wide breath, has become an innovative phenomenon.
Jamila is an image of a woman that has not been so explored in the prose of Eastern literature by anyone before Ch. Aitmatov. She is a living person, born from the very land of Kyrgyzstan. Before Dani-yar appeared, Jamila lived like a trickle, icebound. Neither mother-in-law nor husband Jamila Sadiq due to centuries-old traditions“big and small courtyards” and it doesn’t even occur to us that in spring the sun can wake up this invisible stream. And he can bubble, seethe, boil and rush in search of a way out and, not finding it, will stop at nothing, rushing forward to a free life.
In the story “Jamilya”, in a new, subtle and with great inner tact, Ch. Aitmatov solves the problem of the collision of the new with the old, the patriarchal and socialist way of life and everyday life. This problem is complex, and when they tried to solve it straightforwardly, the characters turned out to be sketchy, and there was no psychological persuasiveness. Ch. Aitmatov happily avoided this drawback. Seit, on whose behalf the story is told, respects his mother, the support of the family. When all the men of the “big and small courtyards” go to the front, the mother demands from those remaining “patience with the people.” In her understanding of things, she relies on extensive life experience and epic traditions. The author does not throw a single reproach at her address. And patriarchal foundations, inertia, philistinism, covered with the mold of prosperity, are subtextually highlighted by the author, and ultimately it becomes clear to the reader that all this puts pressure on the individual, deprives him of beauty, freedom and strength. The love of Daniyar and Jamili not only exposed the moral and social roots of this philistinism, but also showed the ways to defeat it.
Love in the story wins the battle against inertia. Both in this work and in subsequent ones, Aitmatov affirms the freedom of personality and love, because without them there is no life.
The power of the influence of real art on the human soul is clearly revealed in the fate of young Seit. An ordinary Ail teenager, who differs from his peers perhaps in his slightly greater powers of observation and spiritual subtlety, suddenly begins to see the light under the influence of Daniyar’s songs. The love of Daniyar and Jamili inspires Seit. After they left, he still remains in the village of Curkureu, but he is no longer the same teenager. Jamila and Daniyar became for him the moral embodiment of poetry and love, their light led him on the road, he decisively declared to his mother: “I’m going to study... Tell your father. I want to be an artist." Such is the transformative power of love and art. This is stated and defended by Ch. Aitmatov in the story “Djamilya”.
At the very beginning of the 60s, several of Aitmatov’s stories appeared one after another, including “The Poplar in the Red Scarf” and “The Camel’s Eye.” Judging by the artistic execution, they date back to the time of the writer’s creative search. In both stories there are acute conflict situations both in the sphere of production and in the personal lives of the characters.
The hero of the story “Topolek in a Red Scarf” Ilyas perceives the world around him quite poetically. But at the beginning of the story, where this poetry looks like a natural manifestation of the spiritual capabilities of a person inspired by love, he seems less convincing than later, when he suffers and looks for his lost love. And yet Ilyas is a sharply defined male character among the people around him. Baitemir, who first sheltered Asel and then married her, - man kind and sympathetic, but there is a certain selfishness in him. Maybe this is because he lived alone for too long and is now silently but stubbornly holding on to the happiness that so unexpectedly, like a gift from God, crossed the threshold of his bachelor’s home?
Critics reproached the author of “The Poplar in the Red Scarf” for the lack of psychological justification for the actions of the heroes. The unspoken love of two young people and their hasty wedding seemed to be called into question. There is, of course, some truth in this, but we must also take into account the fact that the creative principle of Ch. Aitmatov, as well as the love tradition of his people, is always alien to the verbosity of people who love each other. It is through actions and subtle details that Aitmatov shows the unity of loving hearts. A declaration of love is not love itself. After all, Daniyar and Jamila also realized that they loved each other, without long-winded explanations.
In “Topolka in a Red Kerchief,” Asel recognizes the tracks of Ilyas’s truck among the wheels of a dozen other vehicles. Here Aitmatov used folklore detail very appropriately and creatively. In this region, where the story takes place, a girl, especially two days before the wedding, cannot go out onto the road in broad daylight to wait for an unloved person. Ilyas and Asel were led on the road by love, and here words are unnecessary, since their actions are psychologically justified. And yet in the story you can feel some kind of haste from the author, a desire to quickly unite the lovers; he quickly needs to move on to something more important. And now Ilyas says: “We lived together, loved each other, and then trouble happened to me.” And then - industrial conflict and ultimately the destruction of the family. Why? Because Ilyas “turned the horse of life in the wrong direction.” Yes, Ilyas is a hot-tempered and contradictory person, but the reader believes that he will not give up, will find the strength to overcome the confusion in his soul and find happiness. In order to be convinced of this logical transformation of Ilyas, readers only need to recall the internal monologue of this already quite beaten by fate young man when he sees white swans for the second time over Issyk-Kul: “Issyk-Kul, Issyk-Kul - my unsung song! ...why did I remember the day when Asel and I stopped at this place, right above the water?”
Ch. Aitmatov does not change his manner: in order to prove the depth of Ilyas’s experiences and the breadth of his soul, he again leaves him alone with the lake.
With this story, the wonderful writer proved to himself and others that for any plot, any theme, he finds an original Aitmatov solution.

In 1958, the novel “Djamilya” was first published in the magazine “New World”, which brought Chingiz Aitmatov world fame. The French poet Louis Aragon said: “Jamila is the most beautiful love story in the world.” Jamilya is a young Kyrgyz woman who, in defiance of outdated patriarchal customs, boldly moves towards love.

Soviet criticism believed that Irina Poplavskaya's film was far from perfect. Although all the main characters - Jamili (Natalya Arinbasarova), front-line soldier Daniyar (Suimenkul Chokmorov), the brother of the heroine's husband Seit (Nasretdin Dubashev) - are brilliantly embodied. Today, when we have already seen more than one performance in different theaters former USSR, when directors from far abroad tried to present their film versions of Aitmatov’s legendary story to our judgment, we can safely say that the imperfect creation of Muscovite Irina Poplavskaya remains the most adequate screen embodiment of the cult source.

Critic Elga Lyndina wrote that in Poplavskaya’s film the plot of the story was fairly accurately conveyed, but the passionate emotion and genuine pathos were gone. The picture was reduced to a chain of individual episodes of certain illustrations of “Jamili”.

And in this chain, Poplavskaya has individual achievements. I will never forget the scene with a huge, seven-pound sack of grain, which was thrown to Daniyar by the mischievous Seit and Jamila. Each step along the ladder was difficult for Daniyar, in addition, he began to noticeably fall on his wounded leg, the higher he climbed, the more he swayed from side to side: the bag swayed him. Jamila, with her eyes widened in horror, began shouting at him to throw the bag. But Daniyar stubbornly climbed up.

He withstood this test, he was generally inclined to withstand all the injustices of the world that God sent, perhaps testing Daniyar’s strength. And when it became clear that the hero was able to withstand all adversities, love was sent down to him. And then the gloomy Daniyar blossomed. It turns out he can sing, smile, and be handsome! And Suimenkul Chokmorov played all these transformations amazingly.

The actor managed to reveal the rich inner world of one of his favorite literary heroes writer. Although Chokmorov himself viewed his work in “Djamil” very critically and dreamed of playing Daniyar again. More than once he had the crazy idea of filming a new version of Aitmatov’s story himself, although in general he never thought of being a director.

German director Monica Teiber, who worked on the film adaptation in 1994, managed to attract the collaboration of the famous American theater and film actor Fareed Murray Abraham, familiar to us from the image of Salieri in the film “Amadeus,” which brought him an Oscar award. In “Jamila,” Abraham appeared in the role of an adult Seit, who, at the whim of the director, received the surname Frolov. But, as it turned out during the filming, this was not the director’s only whim: she chose blond Jason Connery for the role of Daniyar, straightforwardly accepting the author’s mention that Daniyar was an alien, a stranger...

Jamila was played by French actress of Vietnamese origin Linh Pham. It can be suggested that with more careful preparation for the work, which contributed to a deeper immersion in the character, she could have become the ideal Jamila.

We read from Aitmatov: “Djamila was pretty: slender, stately, with straight, coarse hair braided into two tight braids.” (1)

Lin Pham is indeed a very beautiful woman, but external data alone is clearly not enough to create the complex image of Jamili. It is obvious that the interpretation of the image of Jamila by Irina Poplavskaya and Natalya Arinbasarova is much closer to the literary prototype than the presentation of Monica Taber and Linh Pham. Although Arinbasarova is not as beautiful in appearance as Lin Pham, she nevertheless managed to better express Jamila’s inner freedom and emancipation.

Short, slightly plump, Arinbasarova accurately placed all the semantic accents and at the same time she is very natural, relaxed, as if the heroine’s feelings became her feelings too.

Lin Pham, on the other hand, only declares Jamili’s personal independence; just remember the episode in which Seit reads Sadyk’s letter from the front. The heroine is outraged by Sadyk’s indifferent attitude towards her and speaks out very angrily about this. Jamilya Arinbasarova experiences the whole situation in secret, changing her internal state occurs gradually: from the shining of the eyes at the beginning of reading the letter to the dimmed gaze at the end.

Of course, the Kyrgyz audience did not accept Monica Taber’s “Jamila”.

Monica Taber had a unique chance to attract everyone's attention to her person: filming in the early 90s (during the era of rampant feminism) literary work of the late 50s about a woman who was declared to have the potential to treat everyone freely, was obliged to place all the semantic accents in accordance with the tastes of the new time. It was from the late 80s - early 90s that the on-screen, uninhibited rebel of the 50s transformed into an independent image of a woman standing firmly on her feet, having a dream and knowing how to make it come true. Monica Taber, sensitively grasping the relevance of the story of the internally liberated Jamila, unfortunately, could not make it modern. 14 years later, the Frenchwoman Marie de Poncheville tried to do this, who, in accordance with the realities of the late twentieth century, transformed the plot of Aitmatov’s immortal story, nevertheless preserving the main conceptual component of the cult literary work.

The film by the French director begins with a short prologue.

France. Night. Coastal strip of the ocean. Storm. Two European-looking men grab an Asian man, throw him to the ground, suppress all impulses in him, in order to deport him from the country after a while. Blackout.

The inscription appears: “Tengri. Blue of the sky” - accompanied by a powerful Asian voice, which is born in the singer’s heart, passes through his throat to soar freely in the heavenly heights of wayward Asia. This voice proudly sounds over the native expanses of the deported Asian. A sharp-eyed, daring eagle protects the progress of our hero, cutting through the few cloudy waves of Tengri. The tired man, however, confidently walks along the roadway and easily gets into a large truck. Local people easily explain to him how to get to the Ak-Zhuz jailoo, where a certain Taras lives. Bruised by life, aged early, but charming, the hero tries to step on the ground carefully so as not to trample the grass, because he knows that this is precious food for the livestock that grazes here on the jailoo in the summer.

The hero's name is Temir. It turns out that his father Taras has died. Someone quietly asks: “Are you, perhaps, Jamili’s son?” “Yes,” the alien answers just as quietly.

The native land accepted its prodigal son. Countrymen - no. Only the beautiful Amira (A. Imasheva) and her older sister Uulzhan (T. Abazova) and her brother Taib show interest in Temir (I. Kalmuratov).

The image of Amira is close to Aitmatov’s Jamila. The director of the film “Tengri” has repeatedly emphasized that the plot of the film is inspired by the love story of Daniyar and Jamila.

In her work, Marie de Poncheville always raises issues of female vulnerability in the patriarchal structure of the world. It is not so important where the action of her paintings takes place: in Europe or Asia. That’s why in France, according to the director, a man’s world also reigns, and it’s not so easy for a woman to break through.

Let us remember that Jamilya, Aitmatov’s iconic heroine, immediately attracted the attention of Louis Aragon and gained fame in France, because she correlated with the new in a feminine way. As you know, at that time in French cinema a type of young woman appeared and a little later established itself, who placed above all else the naturalness of feelings, the authenticity of impulses. She did not want to take into account generally accepted norms of behavior, expressing the theme of the gap between generations, the vague and unformed rebellion of youth against bourgeois values. (3)

When in the early 60s, literary critic Georgy Gachev began reading the story “Djamilya” for the first time, he knew that it had already been translated into French Aragon. From this fact, Gachev then formed an idea for himself - that means “Djamilya” “stands at the level of modern literary thinking and enriches it in some way.” After reading the story, Gachev came to the conclusion: “... the family-tribal relations of the Kyrgyz, which developed in the nomadic era, seemed to smoothly flow into socialist ones. But the immutability of the patriarchal state is apparent; somewhere deep down it has already been undermined. This subversion of old norms and ideas about what should be is manifested in the character of Jamila. It’s obvious that she behaves somehow strangely, in her own way, she allows herself too much of what is not accepted, but there is no reason to condemn her.” (4)

People also condemn Amira, the heroine of the era of change. Amira is a woman free from prejudice, her only desire is to know what love is. She is judged by weak, worthless men who become braver after drinking a glass or two of vodka and begin shamelessly pestering her. They are so brave that they can beat a person to death, as the drunkard Askar did with his wife Uulzhan. On-screen “heroes” find another way to overcome the lack of masculinity in their loved ones. So, Amira’s own husband, Shamshi, is a Mujahid, pretends to be a true believer Moldoke, and regularly travels to southern hot spots to earn money. Shamshi is only capable of fighting, not creating. For the time being, he remains an elementary dunderhead in relation to Amira. He does not care about the feelings, worries, and yearnings of his beautiful wife. Usually Shamshi returns home on a short vacation to unwind, but not in the marital bed, but over drinks with friends.

And then Temir appears on the jailoo, a man from nowhere, penniless, who settles in a hut on the outskirts of the camp. The only person with whom he finds common language, the alien is a former Afghan warrior, a rude Russian man with kind hearted who is forever stuck in the beautiful Asian country and sells to the Chinese the metal remnants of the former power of the Soviet power.

Amir doesn’t care that Temir is a loser in life. She feels: although her chosen one is poor financially, he is filled internally, spiritually rich, and it is with him that she can get a feeling of complete happiness from all-consuming love.

Amira runs away with him. On the way, it turns out that Temir is not able to shoot a bunny with a slingshot, catch a fish, or shoot a bird to feed his hungry lover. Temir does not know where he is taking her and what will happen to them tomorrow. He does not plan his life, but simply goes somewhere forward, as it turns out, again to the West, which has already expelled him once. Temir did not find himself in his native pasture. An unplanned life forces Temir to submit to circumstances: to leave his homeland once again. He can't stand up to Amira's husband and his gang of militants. Temir, in principle, is not adapted to life, he is a dreamer, and only strong woman next to him she is able to support him and become a support.

At the beginning I spoke about the eagle in the high sky of Asia, which guards Temir’s walk across native land. She will appear in sight twice more: when Amira visits Uulzhan’s grave and tries to place a stone on it. Temir appears and helps her. This is how their relationship begins. For the third time, already in the finale, the eagle notifies the heroes that they, having overcome all conceivable and inconceivable obstacles, have reached a foreign land. The film ends with new hope for future happiness.

Marie de Poncheville wanted to show the nature of Kyrgyzstan: “Let everyone in the world see how beautiful country Amira and Temir live." Yes, our landscapes are magnificent and picturesque, but among this beauty, de Poncheville’s heroes cannot find happiness; they go to look for it in a foreign land.

“Tengri” is an audience film, and in general, Bishkek residents received it warmly. True, some noted (in their opinion) an obvious disadvantage musical accompaniment: “Throat singing is not typical of the Kyrgyz!”

In general, as the plot develops, many different songs are heard, which did not cause any complaints. Actresses Albina Imasheva and Taalaikan Abazova sing lyrical and playful Kyrgyz songs from the heart. Famous actor and bard Nikolai Marusich performs his own works. Artist Tabaldy Aktanov recites a short fragment from the epic “Manas”; his young partner Aibek Midin uulu attempts to perform the same fragment in rap style. Note that all this sounds “live” in the film: the sound was written on the set.

Many people believe that the film is clearly drawn out, and its second half suffers from long shots of mountain landscapes, and the endless pursuit of the heroes is in no way justified, and it should have been cut down.

Kyrgyzstanis did not accept the picture in principle.

We, fellow countrymen and guardians of the literary heritage outstanding writer, we cannot stop the creative impulse, the intention of one or another director, no matter whether domestic or foreign, to stage productions based on the works of Chingiz Aitmatov. But we have the right to express our opinion, to live in the hope that new film adaptations will be more adequate, that the director will not take unreasonable liberties in the interpretation of certain images, and will be more careful.

Gulbara Tolomusheva, film critic

Filmography:

1. “Jamila” - first version

Screen adaptation of the story of the same name by Chingiz Aitmatov

Production of the Mosfilm film studio, 1969, b/w, color, 35 mm, 78 min.

Stage director: Irina Poplavskaya

Director of photography – Kadyrzhan Kydyraliev

Production designer: Anatoly Kuznetsov

Starring: Natalya Arinbasarova, Suimenkul Chokmorov, Nasretdin Dubashev

2."Jamila"- film adaptation of the story of the same name by Chingiz Aitmatov

Production: Trianglefilm (Germany), Hamlin Media International and Corey Film Distributors (USA), 1994, color, 35 mm, 85 min.

Stage Director: Monica Taber

Director of photography – Manasbek Musaev

Composer: Evgeniy Doga

Starring: Linh Pham, Jason Connery, Nicholas Kinski, Fareed Murray Abraham

3. “Tengri. Blue of the sky"

The film is dedicated to the blessed memory of the great writer Chingiz Aitmatov

Germany – France – Kyrgyzstan, 2008, 35 mm, 110 min.

Production: L.Films – Cine Dok GmbH & Arte France Cinema

: Marie-Jaoule Poncheville Jean-Francois Goyet featuring Charles Castella

Production: Marie-Jaoule de Poncheville

Sylvie Carcedo Frank Muller

Producers: Frank Muller, Emmanuel Schlumberger, Taalaibek Bapanov

Producer-manager: Ernest Abdyzhaparov

In Kyrgyz (95%) and Russian (5%) languages with English subtitles

Starring: Albina Imasheva, Ilimbek Kalmuratov, Nikolai Marusich, Taalaikan Abazova, Tabaldy Aktanov, Busurman Odurakaev, Askhat Sulaimanov, Aibek Midin uulu.

Chingiz Aitmatov (born in 1928) is one of the most remarkable figures of modern Soviet literature. This is a deeply national writer, but from his very first steps in literature he became known throughout the Union. As one of the prominent Soviet writers it is widely popular abroad. Recent years he often gives lectures, interviews, and at various forums there.

However, before success came to Aitmatov, he worked a lot and hard: he was looking for his themes, his heroes, his own style of storytelling. From the very beginning, his works were distinguished by special drama, complex problems, and ambiguous solutions to problems. These are the early stories: “Djamilya” (1957), “My Poplar in a Red Scarf” (1961), “The First Teacher” (1963). Let's look at the last story in a little more detail. The author himself said: “... in “The First Teacher” I wanted to establish our understanding of the positive hero in literature... I tried to look at this image with our modern eyes, I wanted to remind today’s youth of their immortal fathers.”

The image of a teacher doing his best to tear the children of his fellow villagers away from ignorance is painfully modern. Isn’t the life of fellow teachers today aimed at the same thing? And isn’t the critic V. Pankin deeply right that “respecting a teacher - for some reason this science is more difficult than others.”

Gradually, the scope of life becomes wider and deeper, the writer strives more and more to penetrate into its secrets, into the essence of the most pressing issues of our time. At the same time, Aitmatov’s prose becomes more philosophical; contradictions and collisions reach very great strength. The methods of storytelling are becoming more complex. Often reflections and internal monologues of the hero with the author's speech are inextricably fused. The role of folklore elements is strengthened, lyrical songs are woven into the story (“Farewell, Gyulsary!”),

Traditions, myths, legends (“The White Steamship”, “The Piebald Dog Running by the Edge of the Sea”). From this the images acquire a special symbolic meaning, the philosophical orientation of the works deepens.

Some critics distinguish three periods in the creative development of Ch. Aitmatov. “Jamila”, “Camel’s Eye”, “My Poplar in a Red Scarf”, “The First Teacher” are works of the first stage. The second is formed by the stories "Mother's Field" (1963) and

"Farewell, Gyulsary!" (1966). The third begins with "The White Steamer" (1970). These are also "Early Cranes", "Piebald Dog Running by the Edge of the Sea" and the novel "Stormy Stop". “Personality and Life, People and History, Conscience and Being - these are the problematic pairs of the three designated stages of Aitmatov’s ascent to ever deeper essences,” writes G. Grachev, a researcher of the writer’s work.

Not just individual people with their feelings and thoughts, but Man in general becomes the focus of the writer’s attention. He strives to comprehend the laws of existence, the meaning of life. So, there are no specific signs of time, individuality of characters in a philosophical story

"A piebald dog running by the edge of the sea." Its meaning is in the thoughts of the old man Organ: “... in the face of the infinity of space, a man in a boat is nothing. But a man thinks and thereby ascends to the greatness of the Sea and Sky, and thereby affirms himself before the eternal elements, and thus he is commensurate with the depth and height of the worlds.” With its entire content, this story is an approach to the novel “Stormy Stop” (another title is “And the Day Lasts Longer than a Century”). The main thing in the novel is a fundamentally new understanding of time and space, this is our whole world with the contradictions tearing it apart, a world on the brink of disaster. The work is deeply philosophical and artistic. One cannot help but like the people of labor, the eternal workers, whom the author portrayed with such love.

The critic divided the writer’s work into three periods in 1982. But it seems that perestroika was an opportunity for an even higher rise in the writer’s skill. With its beginning, “The Scaffold” is published. This book is about the relationship between Man and Nature, about the search for the meaning of life, and about the purpose of religion in it. at its best for us, and about the trouble of our time - drug addiction, and much more. In terms of the scope of themes, versatility, philosophical approach and depth of symbolism, this work surpassed everything previously written.

The world-famous writer Chingiz Torekulovich Aitmatov does not need to be introduced to readers - millions of his admirers live all over the world. If you still need it, turn to his books.

There are writers whose every work becomes an event in the cultural life of the country, the subject of heated debate and deep thought. The work of Chingiz Aitmatov is convincing evidence of this.

The appearance in 1958 in the magazine “New World” of the story “Djamila”, small in volume, but significant in content, bright in imaginative thinking and mastery of execution, was a signal that a man of amazingly original talent had come to literature from the Kyrgyz steppes.

Chekhov wrote: “What is talented is new.” These words can be fully attributed to Ch. Aitmatov’s stories “Djamilya”, “White Steamer”, “Farewell, Gyulsary!”, “Poplar in a Red Scarf” and others. Only an exceptionally gifted nature can combine a truly folkloric beginning and an innovative perception of modern life. Already the story “Jami-la”, sung by the writer freely, in one wide breath, has become an innovative phenomenon.

Jamila is an image of a woman that has not been so explored in the prose of Eastern literature by anyone before Ch. Aitmatov. She is a living person, born from the very land of Kyrgyzstan. Before the appearance of Dani-yar, Jamila lived like a stream bound in ice. Due to the centuries-old traditions of the “large and small courtyards,” it never occurs to either the mother-in-law or her husband Jamila Sadyk that in the spring the sun can awaken this invisible stream. And he can bubble, seethe, boil and rush in search of a way out and, not finding it, will stop at nothing, rushing forward to a free life.

In the story “Djamilya”, in a new, subtle and with great inner tact, Ch. Aitmatov solves the problem of the collision of the new with the old, the patriarchal and socialist way of life and everyday life. This problem is complex, and when they tried to solve it straightforwardly, the characters turned out to be sketchy, and there was no psychological persuasiveness. Ch. Aitmatov happily avoided this drawback. Seit, on whose behalf the story is told, respects his mother, the support of the family. When all the men of the “big and small courtyards” go to the front, the mother demands from those remaining “patience with the people.” In her understanding of things, she relies on extensive life experience and epic traditions. The author does not throw a single reproach at her address. And patriarchal foundations, inertia, philistinism, covered with the mold of prosperity, are subtextually highlighted by the author, and ultimately it becomes clear to the reader that all this puts pressure on the individual, deprives him of beauty, freedom and strength. The love of Daniyar and Jamili not only exposed the moral and social roots of this philistinism, but also showed the ways to defeat it.

Love in the story wins the battle against inertia. Both in this work and in subsequent ones, Aitmatov affirms the freedom of personality and love, because without them there is no life.

The power of the influence of real art on the human soul is clearly revealed in the fate of young Seit. An ordinary Ail teenager, who differs from his peers perhaps in his slightly greater powers of observation and spiritual subtlety, suddenly begins to see the light under the influence of Daniyar’s songs. The love of Daniyar and Jamili inspires Seit. After they left, he still remains in the village of Curkureu, but he is no longer the same teenager. Jamila and Daniyar became for him the moral embodiment of poetry and love, their light led him on the road, he decisively declared to his mother: “I’m going to study... Tell your father. I want to be an artist." Such is the transformative power of love and art. This is stated and defended by Ch. Aitmatov in the story “Djamilya”.

At the very beginning of the 60s, several of Aitmatov’s stories appeared one after another, including “The Poplar in the Red Scarf” and “The Camel’s Eye.” Judging by the artistic execution, they date back to the time of the writer’s creative search. In both stories there are acute conflict situations both in the sphere of production and in the personal lives of the characters.

The hero of the story “The Poplar in the Red Scarf,” Ilyas, perceives the world around him quite poetically. But at the beginning of the story, where this poetry looks like a natural manifestation of the spiritual capabilities of a person inspired by love, he seems less convincing than later, when he suffers and looks for his lost love. And yet Ilyas is a sharply defined male character among the people around him. Baitemir, who first sheltered Asel and then married her, is a kind and sympathetic person, but there is a certain selfishness in him. Maybe this is because he lived alone for too long and is now silently but stubbornly holding on to the happiness that so unexpectedly, like a gift from God, crossed the threshold of his bachelor’s home?

Critics reproached the author of “The Poplar in the Red Scarf” for the lack of psychological justification for the actions of the heroes. The unspoken love of two young people and their hasty wedding seemed to be called into question. There is, of course, some truth in this, but we must also take into account the fact that the creative principle of Ch. Aitmatov, as well as the love tradition of his people, is always alien to the verbosity of people who love each other. It is through actions and subtle details that Aitmatov shows the unity of loving hearts. A declaration of love is not love itself.

After all, Daniyar and Jamila also realized that they loved each other, without long-winded explanations.

In “Topolka in a Red Kerchief,” Asel recognizes the tracks of Ilyas’s truck among the wheels of a dozen other vehicles. Here Aitmatov used folklore detail very appropriately and creatively. In this region, where the story takes place, a girl, especially two days before the wedding, should not go out onto the road in broad daylight to wait for an unloved person. Ilyas and Asel were led on the road by love, and here words are unnecessary, since their actions are psychologically justified. And yet in the story you can feel some kind of haste from the author, a desire to quickly unite the lovers; he quickly needs to move on to something more important. And now Ilyas says: “We lived together, loved each other, and then trouble happened to me.” And then - industrial conflict and ultimately the destruction of the family. Why? Because Ilyas “turned the horse of life in the wrong direction.” Yes, Ilyas is a hot-tempered and contradictory person, but the reader believes that he will not give up, will find the strength to overcome the confusion in his soul and find happiness. In order to be convinced of this logical transformation of Ilyas, readers need only remember the internal monologue of this young man, already beaten by fate, when he sees white swans for the second time over Issyk-Kul: “Issyk-Kul, Issyk-Kul - my unsung song! ...why did I remember the day when Asel and I stopped at this place, right above the water?”

Ch. Aitmatov does not change his manner: in order to prove the depth of Ilyas’s experiences and the breadth of his soul, he again leaves him alone with the lake.

With this story, the wonderful writer proved to himself and others that for any plot, any theme, he finds an original Aitmatov solution.

Still from the film “Jamila” (1968)

It was the third year of the war. There were no adult healthy men in the village, and therefore the wife of my older brother Sadyk (he was also at the front), Jamilya, was sent by the foreman to a purely male job - transporting grain to the station. And so that the elders would not worry about the bride, he sent me, a teenager, along with her. And he also said: I will send Daniyar with them.

Jamila was beautiful - slender, stately, with blue-black almond-shaped eyes, tireless, dexterous. She knew how to get along with her neighbors, but if she was offended, she would not yield to anyone in scolding. I loved Jamila dearly. And she loved me. It seems to me that my mother also secretly dreamed of someday making her the imperious mistress of our family, which lived in harmony and prosperity.

On the current I met Daniyar. They said that as a child he was left an orphan, for three years he wandered around the yards, and then went to the Kazakhs in the Chakmak steppe. Daniyar’s wounded leg (he had just returned from the front) did not bend, so they sent him to work with us. He was reserved, and in the village he was considered a strange person. But in his silent, gloomy thoughtfulness there was something hidden that we did not dare to treat him with familiarity.

And Jamila, as it happened, either laughed at him or did not pay attention to him at all. Not everyone would tolerate her antics, but Daniyar looked at the laughing Jamila with gloomy admiration.

However, our tricks with Jamila ended sadly one day. Among the bags there was one huge one, seven pounds in size, and we handled it together. And somehow, while driving, we dumped this bag into our partner’s chaise. At the station, Daniyar looked at the monstrous load with concern, but, noticing how Jamila grinned, he put the bag on his back and went. Jamila caught up with him: “Drop the bag, I was joking!” - “Go away!” - he said firmly and walked along the ladder, leaning harder and harder on his wounded leg... There was dead silence all around. "Drop it!" - people shouted. “No, he won’t quit!” - someone whispered with conviction.

The entire next day Daniyar remained calm and silent. We returned from the station late. Suddenly he began to sing. I was amazed by what passion, what burning the melody was saturated with. And suddenly his oddities became clear to me: daydreaming, love of solitude, silence. Daniyar's songs stirred my soul. And how Jamila has changed!

Every time we returned to the village at night, I noticed how Jamila, shocked and touched by this singing, came closer and closer to the chaise and slowly extended her hand to Daniyar... and then lowered it. I saw how something was accumulating and ripening in her soul, demanding a way out. And she was afraid of it.

One day we were driving from the station, as usual. And when Daniyar’s voice began to gain pitch again, Jamila sat down next to him and lightly leaned her head against his shoulder. Quiet, timid... The song suddenly stopped. It was Jamila who impulsively hugged him, but immediately jumped off the chaise and, barely holding back tears, said sharply: “Don’t look at me, go!”

And there was an evening at the lek when, through a dream, I saw how Jamila came from the river, sat down next to Daniyar and fell to him. “Jamilam, Jamaltai!” - Daniyar whispered, calling her the most tender Kazakh and Kyrgyz names.

Soon the steppe began to blow, the sky became cloudy, and cold rains began to fall - harbingers of snow. And I saw Daniyar walking with a duffel bag, and Jamila was walking next to him, holding the strap of his bag with one hand.

How much talk and gossip there was in the village! The women vied with each other to condemn Jamila: to leave such a family! with the hungry man! Maybe I was the only one who didn’t condemn her.

Retold

55 years ago Ch. Aitmatov’s story “Djamilya” was published

Periods of history that are equal in calendar length are far from equal in terms of dramatic intensity of events and the charge of socio-psychological novelty. Hence the differences in the degree of sharpness and swiftness with which one or another era leaves its mark on the appearance of the artists it produces, on the nature of their creative interests and aspirations. Chingiz Aitmatov was born in 1928 in a world devoid of stability and idyll. At the right time early childhood he could still observe folk nomads in the mountainous regions of Kyrgyzstan: “ I caught these bright spectacles at the very end, then they disappeared with the transition to settled life" The ancient way of life was changing, human destinies were changing. Aitmatov took his first steps in the writing field in the fifties, when the country was in the process of overcoming the consequences of the cult of personality. The high social upsurge brought great revival to literature and art. In Soviet art there has been increased attention to real conflicts reality, to complex problems folk life, to the personality of a contemporary, his moral character. Already in early stories Aitmatov was talking about something new in the life of the Kyrgyz village; about the birth of an atmosphere of labor competition on collective farm fields; about the successes and failures of young heroes on the path of self-affirmation in life, and there the image of a modern Kyrgyz woman with an increased sense of self-esteem, with a desire for equal participation in social and industrial affairs, appears. The story " Jamila"brought Aitmatov all-Union, and subsequently European fame. The theme of war in this work appears in its indirect impact on the life of the Kyrgyz village, public and personal relationships of people, their feelings and destinies. Already in the very choice of life collisions, the nature of their coverage, one could feel the author’s desire to go against the prevailing schemes and canons in literature, which forced us to “not notice” some of the negative facts and phenomena of reality, and to clearly evaluate them in a flat-moralistic spirit. difficult questions intrafamily relationships, the innermost movements of the human heart. IN " Jamila"The young woman is going through the drama of a break with the past, but the main thing is not this, not the confrontation of her environment, but in the process of the birth and triumph of love for Daniyar, in the discovery of each other by these people. From the very beginning, Jamila appears to the reader as bold, independent, and daring. This is a woman who grew up in a new system; for her, the feeling of acquiring spiritual wealth is more important than internal struggle with the dictates of family duty, the commandments of adat. The reader sees and evaluates everything that happens between her and Daniyar through the eyes of young Seit. The artist's talent awakening in him gives rise to the joy of empathy for the beauty and generosity of the feelings of people who are capable of " sing with your soul - not just with your voice", makes the teenager rise above his own crush on Jamila. The author of one of the monographs about the Kyrgyz prose writer Vl. Voronov notes that the uniqueness of the writer’s perception and refraction of tradition lies in the fact that he “ fused the theme of love and the theme of art, thereby emphasizing the creative, creative nature of love. Therefore, to understand Aitmatov’s holistic concept of love as creativity, the analysis of the spiritual transformation of both Jamili and Seit is equally important. In this sense, the image of the narrator, Seit, perhaps carries the main ideological and artistic load in the process of realizing the writer’s plan».