American Journal Of Philological Sciences
18
https://theusajournals.com/index.php/ajps
VOLUME
Vol.05 Issue08 2025
PAGE NO.
18-22
10.37547/ajps/Volume05Issue08-04
Dramatic Exposition and Stage Structure in Tragic Lyric
Poetry: A Case Study of
Contemporary Uzbek Women’s
Poetry
Abdusalomova Durdonakhon Valilullo qizi
PhD student, Department of Uzbek Literature, Andijan State University, Uzbekistan
Received:
13 June 2025;
Accepted:
09 July 2025;
Published:
11 August 2025
Abstract:
This paper examines the interplay between tragic sensibility and dramatic structure in contemporary
Uzbek women’s poetry, with a particular focus on the works of Zebo Mirzo. The study investigates how lyrical
compositions employ structural elements traditionally associated with drama
—
exposition, conflict, climax, and
resolution
—
to construct intense psychological and emotional narratives. Through close readings of selected
poems, the analysis reveals how poetic monologue, inner conflict, and historical personae contribute to the
creation of a
“stage
-
like” tragic experience, transforming the lyric form into a medium of performative and
theatrical expression. This dramaturgical approach to the lyric reflects a shift in contemporary Uzbek women’s
poetry from purely introspective sentiment to scenically structured emotional enactment.
Keywords
:
Tragic lyric, dra
matic exposition, stage structure, lyrical persona, Zebo Mirzo, Uzbek women’s poetry
.
Introduction:
Over
the
past
few
decades,
contemporary Uzbek women’s poetry has undergone a
significant transformation, moving beyond the confines
of traditional lyricism toward more complex and multi-
layered modes of expression. While earlier lyrical
traditions in Uzbek literature often centered on
personal sentiment, introspection, and static imagery,
recent works by female poets increasingly demonstrate
an affinity for internal dramaturgy
—
a deliberate
structuring of emotional experience as a staged event.
This shift marks a redefinition of the lyric from a purely
introspective medium into one that incorporates the
dynamics of performance, narrative progression, and
even theatrical tension.
In this evolving landscape, the lyrical persona
—
traditionally a private voice engaged in meditative self-
dialogue
—
becomes a dramatic agent situated within a
sequence of emotionally charged “scenes.” These are
not passive reflections but active enactments, where
inner feelings unfold through a series of tensions,
confrontations, and transformations, mirroring the
structural logic of stage drama. The lyric “I” speaks as
both author and actor, engaging the reader not only as
a witness to an internal monologue but as an audience
to a staged tragic performance.
The poetry of Zebo Mirzo offers a particularly
compelling example of this phenomenon. Her works
reveal a sustained engagement with tragic sensibility,
articulated through carefully choreographed emotional
arcs. These arcs often align with the structural
principles outlined by Aristotle in his Poetics, including
exposition (the introduction of the emotional or
situational context), rising conflict (the intensification
of tension between inner desire and external
constraint), climax (the apex of emotional or
psychological strain), and resolution or denouement
(whether achieved through reconciliation, resignation,
or unresolved suspension). By mapping these dramatic
components onto a lyrical framework, Mirzo
transforms the poem into a psychological theatre
—
a
performance space where the boundaries between
personal confession and staged tragedy are
deliberately blurred.
This performative quality in contemporary Uzbek
women’s poetry is not a superficial borrowing o
f
theatrical conventions but emerges from a deeply
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American Journal Of Philological Sciences (ISSN
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2771-2273)
rooted tragic worldview, in which human emotions are
inseparable from conflict, inevitability, and fate. The
interplay between subjective will and objective
necessity
—a central concern in G.N. Pospelov’s t
heory
of the tragic
—
finds a potent poetic form in such works.
Here, the conflict is often internal, yet it is staged as if
it were an external confrontation, thus creating a
tension that resonates with both personal and
collective dimensions of female experience.
In addressing these dynamics, the present study
situates contemporary Uzbek women’s poetry within
broader theoretical debates on the tragic mode,
dramatic structure, and the evolution of lyric genres. By
bringing together classical dramaturgical frameworks
(Aristotle), modern literary theory (Pospelov), and the
socio-
cultural context of Central Asian women’s
poetics, this analysis aims to demonstrate how tragedy
in lyric form can function not merely as the expression
of sorrow or loss, but as a scenically organised
enactment of existential truth.
METHODOLOGY
This study adopts a poetic
–
dramaturgical analytical
framework, integrating tools from classical dramatic
theory with the conventions of modern lyric analysis.
The objective is to identify and interpret the presence
of dramatic exposition, conflict, climax, and
denouement
—
structural elements typically associated
with theatre
—
in selected examples of contemporary
Uzbek women’s lyric poetry.
The methodological approach combines close
reading
—
a detailed, line-by-line examination of poetic
form,
imagery,
and
voice
—
with
structuralist
narratology to map the progression of emotional states
in each poem. This is supplemented by comparative
dramaturgical analysis, in which the poems’ internal
architecture is
assessed against Aristotle’s canonical
model of dramatic structure as articulated in Poetics.
While Aristotle’s framework is traditionally applied to
tragic plays, it offers a valuable lens for understanding
the sequential organisation of heightened emotional
intensity in lyric works.
In addition, the analysis draws upon G.N. Pospelov’s
theory of the tragic conflict, which distinguishes
between subjective (inner) and objective (external)
dimensions of tragedy. This dual perspective allows for
a more nuanced reading of the poems, in which the
lyrical persona’s internal struggles are often staged as
confrontations with impersonal or historical forces. The
integration of Pospelov’s dialectical model into the
dramaturgical mapping provides a theoretical bridge
between the inner psychological drama of lyric poetry
and the externalised conflict structures of theatre.
The corpus for this study consists of seven poems by
Zebo Mirzo, selected for their explicit engagement with
tragic themes and their clear dramaturgical
progression:
“Qahr” (Wrath), “Nega kelding?” (Why Did You Come?),
“Sizni eslolmayman” (I Cannot Remember You), “Shohi
Zinda zinalaridan” (From the Stairs of Shohi Zinda),
“Kumush bilan suhbat” (A Conversation with Kumush),
“…Sevilgan
-
u, bilmagan biroq”
(Beloved but Unaware),
“Men sahnada yashab o‘taman” (I Live Upon the Stage).
Each text is examined in three interrelated dimensions:
Structural mapping
–
identifying the exposition,
conflict, climax, and resolution in each poem and
relating these to both classical dramaturgy and modern
lyric form.
Voice and performativity
–
analysing the lyrical persona
as a dramatic actor, including shifts between
monologue, dialogue, and internalised stage action.
Thematic and symbolic analysis
–
interpreting key
images, metaphors, and historical references as
dramaturgical devices that shape the poem’s tragic
atmosphere.
This multi-layered method not only highlights the
intersections between lyric and dramatic genres but
also enables a deeper understanding of how
contemporary Uzbek women poets
—
particularly Zebo
Mirzo
—
adapt theatrical techniques to intensify the
tragic impact of their work.
RESULTS
The close reading of selected poems by Zebo Mirzo
reveals a consistent tendency to structure lyrical
expression according to principles typically associated
with dramatic composition. Each text exhibits a
progression from exposition through conflict and
climax to some form of resolution
—
whether definitive
or suspended. This dramaturgical sequencing serves to
heighten the tragic intensity of the lyric, allowing the
inner life of the persona to unfold as if on a theatrical
stage.
Qahr (Wrath)- This poem opens with a paradoxical
declaration in which the lyrical persona simultaneously
affirms and repudiates love. The exposition establishes
a climate of emotional extremity: “Live without me,
laugh without me, cry without me,” a refrain that
frames separation as both an injunction and an
emotional necessity. The conflict arises from the
tension between the persistence of feeling
—“I still
love”—
and the self-imposed imperative to deny that
love. The climax is marked by an absolute
renunciation
—“Even if you beg God Almighty, I will
never return to your dreams”—
a hyperbolic vow that
signals the peak of inner resistance. The resolution is
not reconciliation but fatalistic acceptance, as the
American Journal Of Philological Sciences
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American Journal Of Philological Sciences (ISSN
–
2771-2273)
speaker identifies themselves as “one who has come
from the last road of the world,” thereby reframing
love’s end as a destiny rather than a choice. The tragic
force of the poem lies not in the absence of affection
but in the destructive excess of feeling, which turns
inward as an act of self-violence.
“Sizni eslolmayman” (I Cannot Remember You)
- Here,
memory itself is configured as a site of torment. The
exposition presents recollection as an involuntary
wound
—“When I recall you, a bitter pain awakens in
my soul”—
transforming what might be nostalgia into a
form of psychic self-injury. The conflict develops
through the admission that prolonged efforts to forget
have failed, the speaker confessing that departure was
“not from my love.” The climax comes with the
articulation of an explicit death wish
—“I wish to die…
to hang myself!”—
a line that condenses grief,
helplessness, and existential exhaustion into a single
irrevocable gesture. The poem’s resolution is int
ernal
rather than external: there is no restorative action, only
the acknowledgment of an “infernal pain” that must be
endured. The tragic source here is the sanctity and
purity of love that remains unrecognized, and therefore
unredeemed, by its intended recipient.
“Shohi Zinda zinalaridan” (From the Stairs of Shohi
Zinda)- In this poem, the exposition is historical: the
figure of Bibixonim is invoked, her fate forming a
symbolic entry point into the lyrical drama. The
speaker’s initial address—“Perhaps you
too have
walked these stairs, Bibim”—
sets the tone for a
meditation on female suffering across time. The
conflict emerges as the poet aligns her own
experiences with the historical queen’s, juxtaposing
contemporary emotional wounds with a remembered
royal tragedy. The climax fuses past and present into a
shared register of female pain: “As the voice of Shohi
Zinda… protect the entrusted heart from earth to sky.”
The resolution is notably absent; rather, the tragedy is
perpetuated through what may be called poetic
identification, in which the speaker assumes the
emotional legacy of a historical other. The tragic force
here lies in the recognition of a collective,
transhistorical female suffering that resists closure.
“…Sevilgan
-
u, bilmagan biroq” (Beloved bu
t Unaware)-
This text opens with the exposition of unrequited
love
—“What does it matter if I am not yours, but a
captive of your love?”—
immediately situating the
speaker in a paradoxical relationship of emotional
possession and absence. The conflict is internalised: the
persona inhabits an idealised vision of love, divorced
from its tangible reality, as in “With him I am the Queen
of Heaven.” The climax comes in the inversion of pity—
“I pity you more… beloved with great love, yet unaware
of being loved”—
transforming the speaker from a
passive sufferer into an active assessor of loss. The
resolution resides in an imagined happiness, a
compensatory construct that replaces external
acknowledgment with internal conviction. The tragedy
derives from the magnitude of a love that remains
unacknowledged, its sublimity intensified by its
invisibility.
“Men sahnada yashab o‘taman” (I Live Upon the
Stage)-This poem is the most explicitly meta-theatrical
of the set, self-consciously framing life as a stage. In the
expositi
on, the speaker declares, “I live upon the
stage,” establishing a metaphorical performance space.
The conflict is staged as a confrontation with hostile,
possibly unseen, forces
—“I bare my chest to sorrow,
yet arrows fly from behind”—
evoking betrayal and the
inevitability of opposition. The climax occurs with the
entrance of the antagonist
—“You appear from behind
the curtain, proud and victorious!”—
a moment of
emotional and symbolic defeat. The resolution is
radical self-sacrifice
—“I am a lover… I end my li
fe with
this point”—
suggesting that the only escape from the
staged conflict is an ultimate act of erasure. A delayed
catharsis follows in the image of “jasmine flowers
ascending the throne,” a bitterly ironic final tableau
implying the triumph of unworthy successors. The
tragic source is the inevitability of loss within the very
performance of existence, a drama in which the
outcome is fixed from the outset.
DISCUSSION
The analysis of Zebo Mirzo’s selected poems
demonstrates that in contemporary Uzbek wome
n’s
lyric poetry, tragic expression increasingly manifests
through staged dramaturgy, where the poetic text is
not merely a repository of feeling but a performative
arena in which emotions are enacted according to a
recognisable dramatic logic. In this sense, the lyric
persona functions less as a passive witness to her own
emotional states and more as a dramatic protagonist,
whose experience unfolds through a sequence of
revelation, confrontation, and resolution. This
transformation signals a significant genre-shaping shift:
the lyric becomes not only a vehicle for personal
confession but also a form of internal monodrama
—
a
performance in which the self stages its own tragedy
for an imagined audience.
This phenomenon involves more than the superficial
borrowing of theatrical devices. Rather, it constitutes a
structural redefinition of the lyric in which poetic time
and space are configured as a “stage,” and the
emotional trajectory mirrors the architecture of
classical tragedy. The exposition introduces the
emotional premise, the conflict heightens the tension
between subjective desire and external or internal
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American Journal Of Philological Sciences (ISSN
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2771-2273)
opposition, the climax marks the zenith of emotional
intensity, and the resolution either restores balance,
affirms loss, or leaves the tension unresolved. By
adhering to such a dramaturgical pattern, the poems
acquire a narrative and performative momentum
unusual for conventional lyric, drawing them into
dialogue with dramatic art.
Moreover, the integration of historical personae
—
most notably the evocati
on of Bibixonim in “Shohi
Zinda zinalaridan”—
expands the scope of the lyric
beyond the immediate emotional sphere of the
speaker. In such cases, the text becomes a site of tragic
identification: the persona overlays her own suffering
with that of historical women, creating a layered
temporal and emotional palimpsest. This strategy not
only universalises personal grief but also situates it
within a collective, transhistorical narrative of female
endurance and loss. It recalls the choral function in
ancient Greek tragedy, where individual lament merges
into communal voice, thus offering the audience a
cathartic recognition of shared human fate.
These techniques resonate strongly with G.N.
Pospelov’s conception of the tragic conflict as a
dialectic between subjective will and objective
necessity. In Mirzo’s poetry, the “objective” dimension
is frequently an impersonal, inescapable force
—
be it
unrequited
love,
historical
injustice,
or
the
irreversibility of separation. The “subjective” element is
the lyric person
a’s response to these forces: resistance,
resignation, or the paradoxical acceptance of defeat as
a form of moral or spiritual victory. The interplay
between these poles generates a tension that is both
psychologically authentic and aesthetically heightened,
emdiving what Pospelov terms the “tragic sense of
life.”
From an aesthetic perspective, this convergence of lyric
and dramatic modes produces what might be termed a
psychological theatre in verse. The audience (reader) is
invited into a space where the
speaker’s inner conflict
is externalised through monologue, imagined dialogue,
and scenic metaphor. The “stage” of the poem may be
a literalised performance space (“Men sahnada yashab
o‘taman”), a reconstructed historical setting (“Shohi
Zinda zinalaridan
”), or the abstract theatre of memory
and dream (“Sizni eslolmayman”). In each case, the
reader occupies a position akin to that of a theatre
spectator, engaging with the unfolding emotional
drama as both witness and participant in the cathartic
process.
T
hus, in contemporary Uzbek women’s poetry, tragedy
is not simply narrated
—
it is enacted. This performative
modality allows poets to merge the lyrical intimacy of
subjective voice with the structural discipline of
dramatic art, resulting in a hybrid form that amplifies
both emotional depth and thematic complexity. It
suggests a potential direction for the evolution of the
lyric genre in Uzbek literature
—
one in which the
boundaries between poetry and theatre are
increasingly porous, and where the tragic mode
becomes a primary site of formal innovation.
CONCLUSION
The present study demonstrates that Zebo Mirzo’s lyric
poetry represents a significant development in the
trajectory of contemporary Uzbek women’s literary
expression, one in which the tragic mode is
reconceptualised through the deliberate adoption of
classical dramatic structures. By embedding the poetic
voice within a dramaturgical framework of exposition
–
conflict
–
climax
–
resolution, her works transcend the
boundaries of traditional lyricism, achieving a form of
psychological theatre that is at once intimate and
performative.
This hybridisation is not a mere stylistic experiment; it
is rooted in a profound engagement with the tragic
worldview as articulated in both classical and modern
literary theory. Aristotle’s conception of tragedy as the
representation of serious and complete action is here
reinterpreted for the lyric stage, where the “action” is
an interior sequence of emotional states rather than an
external chain of events. Simultaneously, Pospelov’s
dialectic of subjective will versus objective necessity
finds vivid embodiment in Mirzo’s monologic dramas,
where the speaker’s inner resistance, surrender, or
transformation unfolds as if in real time before an
audience.
The performative quality of these poems further
underscores the poet’s capacity to u
niversalise
personal experience. In drawing upon historical figures
such as Bibixonim, Mirzo enacts what may be termed a
tragic identification, whereby individual suffering
becomes a symbolic echo of collective female
experience across generations. This interweaving of
personal and historical narratives recalls the chorus of
Greek tragedy, functioning as a communal voice that
bridges temporal and cultural divides.
From a formal perspective, the integration of dramatic
structure into lyric composition produces a heightened
tragic intensity. The use of poetic monologue, imagined
dialogue, scenic metaphor, and sequential emotional
escalation generates a dynamic interplay between the
immediacy of lyric intimacy and the structured
inevitability of theatrical tragedy. This synthesis not
only intensifies the reader’s engagement but also
extends the expressive potential of Uzbek lyric poetry
into new aesthetic territories.
In the broader context of Central Asian poetics, Mirzo’s
American Journal Of Philological Sciences
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American Journal Of Philological Sciences (ISSN
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2771-2273)
work provides a model for how genre boundaries can
be productively blurred to articulate complex
psychological
and
existential
themes.
Her
dramaturgically-inflected lyrics invite comparative
exploration alongside similar hybrid forms in other
literary traditions
—
such as the dramatic monologues
of English Romanticism, the symbolic theatre of
Russian modernism, or the confessional stage-poetry
of contemporary world literature.
Ultimately, the significance of this poetic strategy lies
in its capacity to transform the lyric into a staged
enactment of human destiny. By reimagining the poem
as both confession and performance, Z.Mirzo not only
redefines the possibilities of Uzbek women’s lyricism
but also contributes to a transnational dialogue on the
enduring power of tragedy as an artistic mode. Her
work affirms that in the twenty-first century, tragedy
need not be confined to the theatre: it can inhabit the
compressed, intense, and deeply personal space of the
lyric, where the stage is the page and the audience is
the solitary reader.
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