MATYOQUB QO‘SHJONOV’S MASTERY OF LITERARY PORTRAITURE:LITERARY-CRITICAL CONSCIOUSNESS AND THE POETICS OF MEMORY

Abstract

This article investigates the distinctive features of literary portraiture in the critical heritage of Matyoqub Qo‘shjonov, one of the most influential representatives of twentieth-century Uzbek literary criticism. The study focuses on the critic’s literary-critical consciousness, compositional methodology, poetics of memory, lexical diversity, and psychologically nuanced portrayal of literary figures. Through analytical observation and textual interpretation, the research demonstrates that Qo‘shjonov transformed the literary portrait from a merely biographical-critical genre into a complex aesthetic phenomenon synthesizing scholarly reflection, memoiristic narration, and artistic interpretation. The article further argues that the critic’s portraits embody a unique convergence of documentary precision and figurative expressiveness, thereby occupying a significant place in the development of Uzbek literary-critical thought.