Ideological and artistic originality of the novel “Sweet Treat from Germany” by Sagidulla Khafizov

Abstract

The article analyzes the ideological and artistic features of the work by Sagidulla Khafizov, a prominent representative of Tatar prose in Bashkortostan. The study is based on the novel “Alman Küçtänäche” (“Sweet Treat from Germany”, 2011), which was published in 2011 in the magazine “Kazan Utlary” (No. 12) and later included in the writer’s book (Khafizov S. There Is No Mercy in Love: A Novel, Novellas. Ufa: Kitap, 2020). Special attention is paid to the philosophical issues of the novel related to the fate of the individual, the theme of war and memory, as well as the system of symbols. The article analyzes in detail the multidimensional image of “gifts”, which is a key to interpreting the author’s intention. It reveals the depth and psychological complexity of the work and allows proposing a new hermeneutical model for reading the text. The scientific novelty of the work is the consideration of the ideological content and artistic form of the work as an inseparable unity, where the theme, idea, system of images, motifs, and details mutually condition each other. This comprehensive approach allows us to identify the internal patterns of the fictional world in the novel “Alman Küçtänäche” (“Sweet Treat from Germany”) and reveal new layers of meaning that were previously overlooked by researchers.