The Artistic Interpretation Of The Homeland, Historical Memory, And Civic Responsibility In Contemporary Youth Poetry

Abstract

This article explores the interconnected poetic representation of homeland, historical memory and civic responsibility in contemporary Uzbek poetry by younger authors. Works by Suhrob Ziyo, Najmiddin Ermatov and Shahriyor Shavkat are analyzed with attention to historical figures, the reactivation of national memory, ethical appeals to contemporaries and the transformation of homeland into personal experience. Maurice Halbwachs’s theory of collective memory and Jan Assmann’s concept of cultural memory provide the main theoretical framework. The study argues that references to history in young poetry are not decorative retrospection but a means of evaluating present social conditions and constructing civic position. Images of homeland, Turon, ancestors, language, freedom and historical heroes connect personal responsibility with collective memory. Thus, national memory functions as an active poetic resource for understanding contemporary social problems.