Jamila (novel)

File:Stamps of Kyrgyzstan, 2009-577.jpg

Jamila{{efn|{{langx|ru|link=no|Джамиля}} {{IPA|ru|dʐəmʲɪˈlʲa|}}; {{langx|ky|Жамийля}} {{IPA|ky|t͡ɕamʲi(ː)lʲá|}} and sometimes anglicized as Dzhamilia{{sfn|Mozur Jr|2017|p=30}}}} is the first major novel by Chingiz Aitmatov, published originally in Russian in 1958.{{sfn|Mozur Jr|2017|p=30}}

The novelette brought international fame to Aitmatov, when it came to the attention of Louis Aragon who translated it into French and in a preface lauded it as the "world's most beautiful love story".{{sfn|Follath|Neef|2010}}{{sfn|Mozur Jr|2017|pp=32–33}}

Plot

The novel is told from the point of view of a fictional Kyrgyz artist, Seit, who tells the story by looking back on his childhood.{{sfn|Mozur Jr|2017|p=32}}

The story recounts the love between his new sister-in-law Jamilya and a local crippled young man, Daniyar, while Jamilya's husband, Sadyk, is "away at the front" (as a Soviet soldier during World War II).{{sfn|Mozur Jr|2017|p=32}}

As a fifteen-year-old male of the family, in a patriarchal setting, it is Seit's duty to monitor his sister-in-law's behaviour in the absence of her husband.{{sfn|Mozur Jr|2017|p=32}}

Analysis

{{cn-span|Based on clues in the story, it takes place in northwestern Kyrgyzstan, presumably Talas Province. The story is backdropped against the collective farming culture which was early in its peak in that period.|date=February 2025}}

Although Aitmatov presents life in the story's setting as patriarchal, it is not presented as outright oppressive.{{sfn|Mozur Jr|2017|p=33}}

Seit keeps Jamilia and Daniyar's love secret, viewing it as freedom,{{sfn|Mozur Jr|2017|p=33}} a freedom that he as the older first person narrator explains prompted him to choose a career as an artist.{{sfn|Mozur Jr|2017|p=33}}

Equally as not repeating the stereotypical patriarchal depiction of pre-Revolutionary Kyrgyzstan,{{sfn|Mozur Jr|2017|p=33}} the story similarly does not adopt the Soviet stereotype of women unflinchingly loyal in their husbands's absences,{{sfn|Mozur Jr|2017|p=32}} something that was provocative for Soviet literature at the time.{{sfn|Mozur Jr|2017|p=32}}

Publications

The story was collected into Aitmatov's Tales of the Mountains and Steppes, alongside others such as The First Teacher and The Camel's Eye, in April 1963, for which Aitmatov was awarded the Lenin Prize.{{sfn|Mozur Jr|2017|p=37}}

Russian translations include:

{{cite book|language=ru|author1-first=Чингиз|author1-last=Айтматов|author1-link=Chingiz Aitmatov|chapter=Джамиля|title=Собрание сочинений в трех томах|trans-chapter=Dzhamilia|trans-title=Collected works in 3 volumes|volume=1|ol=13788357M|location=Moscow|publisher=Молодая гвардия|year=1982|editor1-first=S.|editor1-last=Shevelev|translator1-first=А.|translator1-last=Дмитриевой|pages=79–124}}

English translations in print include:

{{cite book|chapter=Dzhamilia|title=Tales of the Mountains and Steppes|author1-first=Chingiz|author1-last=Aitmatov|author1-link=Chingiz Aitmatov|location=Moscow|publisher=Progress Publishers|year=1973|translator1-first=Fainna|translator1-last=Glagoleva|translator2-first=Olga|translator2-last=Shartse}}
Jamilia, translated James Riordan, Telegram Books, London, 2007

Versions of the story available online include:

[https://www.angelfire.com/rnb/bashiri/Stories/Jamila.html Jamila] — A translation of Jamilia into English by Fainna Glagoleva
[http://film.arjlover.net/info/dzhamilja.avi.html Джамиля] — Download of the 1968 movie production of the story

Notes

References

= Sources =

{{cite magazine|author1-first=Erich|author1-last=Follath|author2-first=Christian|author2-last=Neef|url=http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,druck-720631,00.html|title=Kyrgyzstan Has Become an Ungovernable Country|magazine=SPIEGEL ONLINE International|date=2010-10-08}}
{{cite book|title=Parables from the Past: The Prose Fiction of Chingiz Aitmatov|volume=233|series=Russian and East European Studies|author1-first=Joseph P.|author1-last=Mozur Jr|publisher=University of Pittsburgh Press|year=2017|isbn=9780822974642}}