THE ARTISTIC INTERPRETATION OF HISTORICAL REALITY IN UZBEK AND ENGLISH HISTORICAL NOVELS: A COMPARATIVE STUDY

Abstract

This article examines the artistic interpretation of historical reality in Uzbek and English historical novels through a comparative-typological approach. Drawing on works by Oybek, Pirimqul Qodirov and Odil Yoqubov on the one hand, and Walter Scott, William Makepeace Thackeray and Hilary Mantel on the other, the study explores how national historical prose transforms documentary fact into artistic truth. The paper argues that both literary traditions rely on a triad of devices — the fictional protagonist set against a documented historical background, the psychological reconstruction of real historical figures, and the stylization of period language and everyday detail — yet they differ in the degree of authorial intrusion, the treatment of national ideals, and the balance between chronicle and invention. The research employs comparative-historical, hermeneutic and structural- typological methods of literary analysis. The findings show that Uzbek historical prose of the twentieth century tends toward an ethically didactic and monumentalizing interpretation of the past, closely tied to questions of national identity and cultural memory, whereas the English tradition, from Walter Scott's Waverley novels to contemporary neo-historical fiction, moves gradually from romantic idealization toward ironic, revisionist and psychologically ambivalent portrayals of history. The comparative analysis contributes to a broader understanding of how historical fiction functions as a form of cultural self-reflection and offers a methodological basis for further comparative research in world literature.