CULTURE, IDENTITY AND LITERARY REPRESENTATION IN UZBEK AND ENGLISH LITERATURE: A COMPARATIVE STUDY

Culture and identity are among the most significant categories through which literary texts represent individuals, communities, historical experience, and systems of social values. Literature does not merely reproduce culture as a collection of customs or traditions; it actively interprets cultural experience and participates in the formation, preservation, negotiation, and transformation of collective identities. This article examines the relationship between culture, identity, and literary representation in Uzbek and English literature from a comparative perspective. Particular attention is given to the representation of national identity, historical memory, family and social values, language, religion, gender, colonial experience, and modernization. Uzbek literary representation is discussed primarily through the historical and cultural significance of Abdulla Qodiriy, the Jadid literary movement, and the development of modern Uzbek prose. English literary representation is considered through broader traditions of English cultural writing and through theoretical perspectives developed by scholars such as Raymond Williams, Benedict Anderson, Stuart Hall, Edward Said, Homi K. Bhabha, Mikhail Bakhtin, Clifford Geertz, and Richard Hoggart. The study employs comparative literary analysis, historical-contextual analysis, close reading, and cultural interpretation.