Analyzing 'Stone Dreams': Impact and Controversy in Azerbaijani Literature

In the literature of Azerbaijan, one of the pieces that caused a big controversy is the novel of Azerbaijani writer Akram Aylisli, Stone Dreams, in which the author portrays crimes against Armenians in Azerbaijan. The critical evaluation analyzes the article of the writer, Mikail Mamedov, who suggests that the Stone Dreams has the features which are related to minor literature. Starting from the early times when the written work has published, until now, literature has a big impact on the society, in terms of controlling and developing people with the variety of ideas and arguments in it. In addition to the influence of literature on the communities, communities also had a huge impact on the literature. In the other words, there is a reality

One of the types of contemporary literature is the minor literature, which was first stated by Deleuze and Guattari. According to them, minor literature consists of 3 characteristics that defines it as a whole; deterritorialization, political nature and collective value. When the author writes about the ideas of minority in a major language, which are related to the politics and have a collective value towards the other writers, then this piece of work is considered to belong to minor literature. Because of its concept being related to the characteristics of minor literature, Aylisli’s controversial novel, Stone Dreams, can be the part of it. Although the critical analysis of Mikal Mamedov is justifieble with regard to the novel’s giving signs of the minor literature, there are some arguments that are not well-analyzed and not

He states that in spite of the novel’s being unacceptable by the society and ruling elite, it is similar to the other literary works with the same theme and all these works can be one of the sources of dealing with issues of war, reunion and authority. In the beginning he mentions the external responses about Aylisli's reason of writing the novel, and gives a brief information about Akram Aylisli, his famous novels' being staged and published in and beyond the Soviet borders. Throughout the article, Armenian-Azerbaijanian relations and deportations of both Armenians and Azeris are indicated. Besides the characters and plot of Stone Dreams, there are some mentioned parts of the novel which caused scandal, such as Sadyghly's statement that he wants to beg the God to forgive Muslims for their crimes and break apart of Dr.Fazani's family because of their son's seeing circumcision as a violence. The main part of Mamedov's article is about the both local and foreign contemporary works, which have the similar theme with Stone Dreams. For the comparison and contrast and the differences in the reaction to the similar works, he gives an example of Maiden Dreams, Artush and Zaur, Gugark, Fotografiya and Kirve. As a conclusion, the author links the endings of each novel, as well as, Stone Dreams and