THE EVOLUTION OF THE FEMALE IMAGE IN CHO'LPON'S PROSE: THE CASE OF KECHA VA KUNDUZ

Abstract

This article undertakes a comprehensive literary and socio-historical analysis of Cho'lpon's seminal novel Kecha va Kunduz (Night and Day), written in 1935 and widely regarded as one of the foundational texts of modern Uzbek prose. Situating the work within the broader context of Jadidist intellectual reform and Soviet-era cultural transformation, this study examines the novel's representation of women as a lens through which the author critiques the patriarchal structures, institutional ignorance, and moral hypocrisies endemic to early twentieth-century Uzbek society. Through close textual analysis and engagement with relevant secondary scholarship in Uzbek literary history, the article demonstrates that Cho'lpon's female characters — most notably Zebi and Kumush — function not merely as victims of social circumstance but as emblems of a society in profound ethical and epistemological crisis. The findings suggest that the novel anticipates many of the concerns of later feminist literary criticism and constitutes a foundational contribution to the discourse on gender, modernity, and national identity in Central Asian literature.