| Description |
"Doston is a lyric-epic genre, a large-sized epic work in oral and written literature. The word ""doston"" is used in the meaning of ""narrative"", ""story"", ""adventure"", ""description"" and ""praise"". As a literary term this word stands for epic works of large size in oral folk art and written literature. Though, dostons of written and oral literature differ significantly from each other in terms of means and methods used in describing and depicting life.
Thus, dostons, which are examples of oral creativity, differ from those which are examples of written literature, with existence of versions (for example, nearly 50 versions of doston ""Alpomish"", and about 100 dostons from the cycle of ""Goroghli"" were written down up to present), universality and traditionalism. Dostons, which represent the brightest examples of intangible cultural heritage, are usually mastered, performed and inherited (transmitted) orally. And bakhshis, who are performers of dostons, are called differently across Uzbekistan.
Dostons have very ancient historical roots. They, based on the imagination of the people, reflect historical events through generalized characters. Therefore it is possible to observe epic generalization in them. And such a generalization embodies ideals and aspirations of the people about social justice. Hence, typical features of doston are epicism, monumentalism.
In terms of compositional and narrative structure, doston covers complex events and occurrences. These events and occurrences, which are heroic in nature, unite around a single hero, who represents the ideals of the people. And such a hero, who has extraordinary powers, embodies hopes and aspirations of the entire nation.
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