Pre-revolutionary Written Literature

The texts of this section, all written and/or published between the eighteenth century and the early twentieth century, emerge from Central Asia on the precipice of a modernity that would radically change the literate population’s relationship to texts. Here the reader will encounter texts from manuscript culture as authors grapple with modernity alongside texts in genres new to Central Asia at this time, such as newspaper articles, drama, and the (pseudo) travelogue. Writers lament the loss of their authenticity due to Russian conquest as well as call on their populations to take up European ideas and new ways of understanding their community.