THE NARRATING I AND THE NARRATED I: EVOLUTION OF THE AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL VOICE IN ABDULLA KAHHOR’S “TALES FROM THE PAST” AND ERNEST HEMINGWAY’S “GREEN HILLS OF AFRICA”

Abstract

This comparative study examines the bifurcation of the autobiographical subject into the narrating I (present-day writer) and the narrated I (past experiential self) in Abdulla Kahhor’s cycle “O‘tmishdan ertaklar” (“Tales from the Past”, 1962–1965) and Ernest Hemingway’s “Green Hills of Africa” (1935). Drawing on contemporary life-writing theory, the article identifies two radically opposed ontological models: Kahhor’s cyclical, integrative, and forgiving memory rooted in Uzbek communal tradition versus Hemingway’s linear, competitive, and triumphalist memory shaped by Western individualism. The analysis demonstrates that the evolution of the autobiographical voice is not universal but culturally and historically contingent.