Unfortunate Jamal by Myrzhakyp Dulatov

The Stories of Modern Kazakh Prose

Myrzhakyp Dulatov was born on November 25, 1885. Dulatov's political creed was clearly articulated when, in 1909, he published his first collection of poetry, Oyan, Kazak! (Wake Up, Kazakh!). The copies in circulation were immediately confiscated—and in 1911 he was arrested. Dulatov became one of the leaders of Kazakh reformism and the national liberation movement. In the summer of 1917, he helped to organize the First All-Kazakh Congress in Orenburg. He subsequently became a member of the Alash-Orda government led by Alikhan Bukeikhanov and Akhmet Baitursynov. In 1928, he was arrested by the NKVD on charges of Kazakh nationalism. On October 5, 1935, Dulatov died in a prison hospital.

In the novel Unfortunate Jamal, Myrzhakyp Dulatov conceived an unusually complex and interesting female character. Beautiful in appearance, Zhamal is at the same time wayward, proud, resolute—just like the strong female characters of Kazakh epics. At the same time, her behavior and actions, her thoughts and feelings, her relationships with others, her aspirations, and her tragic fate are shaped in many ways by the changes in the life of Kazakh auls that occurred during the early twentieth century. An interesting social background can be seen: the aul, its structure and way of life, the election of volost governors and of people's judges, politics and passions. But Dulatov’s main achievement is the creation of a female character who lives in anticipation of happiness, seeks something unusual in her life, is amazed by her own talents and abilities, and feels that the changes to her surroundings will bring about changes in her life. Alas, woman’s liberation occurred neither in the early twentieth century nor later.