Imagining, Resisting, and Grieving with the Steppe in Satimzhan Sanbayev's 'White Aruana'

• In Event: Thinking with the Steppes as an Environmental, Socio-Political, and Epistemic Space

Abstract

Environmental humanities is a well developed field of studies in Kazakh literature. From environmental proverbs to poems, novels and many other literary genres, generations of authors and artists were reflecting on the role of human nature relations. This paper offers a close reading of a novella by Satimzhan Sanbayev "White Aruana". White Aruana, which became the hallmark of the prose writer, is dedicated to the pressing theme of "man and nature." The genre of Sanbayev's first work is defined as a poem, a lyrical-epic tale, or a sorrowful song. The protagonist, Myrzagali, a veteran of the Great Patriotic War and the best driller of the Makat oil field, brings a white camel calf from Mangystau upon retirement, as if returning to his ethnic roots and national origins. In the novella, the white she-camel constantly searches for her way home. Her image, her relentless running, conveys the motif of inner freedom. Despite enduring incredible hardships and losing her sight due to human actions, the White Aruana struggles to break free from the constraints alien to her—and succeeds at the cost of her own life, leaving the orphaned camel calf in Myrzagali’s care. One might argue that Sanbayev’s work, reflecting on the complexity of the entangled colonial past and present with the ethics and aesthetics of nomadic life, has played and continues to play a significant role in shaping national self-awareness and identity in the first quarter of the 21st century.

Authors

• Olga Mun, U of Oxford (UK)

• Svetlana Ananyeva, Inst of Literature and Art (Kazakhstan)