Today is the commemoration day of Yashar Garayev, a literary critic and scholar who has not lost his greatness and light when viewed from all angles, both close and far. 20 years ago, he was taken away from our knowledge by the merciless evil, but with his writings and deeds, he was able to raise a monument to himself. We commemorate the eternal teacher Yasar with respect!
As the 20th century moves away from us, the criteria for valuing personalities who grew up in this complex and contradictory epoch, who had a place and a foundation in national-spiritual progress, are "rich" with artificial exaggeration accompanied by subjective intervention in some moments, inappropriate and unfounded values, but the place of real science and its representatives is more appears. Especially in the scientific environment, where humanitarian thought's initiatives for reconstruction in the last twenty years often do not go far from the "slogan" and populist considerations, it becomes necessary to return to the science and moral lessons of a thinker with a rare talent like Yashar Garayev, learn, and protect the traditions of this wealth.
Mr.Yashar directed the 20th century Azerbaijani criticism, literary studies and aesthetic thought, more precisely, humanitarian thought, in a new direction, laid the foundation of a new stage, and he and his numerous students turned this stage into a historical reality. The phenomenon of Yashar Garayev, who immediately stands out in our national public opinion, scientific conscience and morals, with his unique intellect in highly intelligent communication, will be studied for many years to come. Those who evaluate him with such epithets as "philosopher of literature", "poet of our criticism", "miracle of our science" are not wrong. Every researcher, person of literature and art who studies the rich heritage of Yashar Garayev will come across many unusual moments of his. Distinguished by his erudition, scientific understanding, rare method of analysis, as a scientist and public figure who guided the humanitarian thought in the republic, Yashar teacher was the embodiment of humility. He determined the scientific-methodological boundaries of humanitarian thought in the second half of the 20th century, in other words, for more than half a century. Yashar Garayev's signature covers the main directions of our humanitarian thought: literary studies, literary criticism, literary historiography, theater studies, aesthetics, and finally, theoretical and methodological problems of humanitarian sciences.
Yashar Garayev entered the world of literature, art and science in the 1950s, when the social and political environment became moderate. In 1953-1958, the group studied at the philology faculty of the university gave Azerbaijan science and literature such names as Tofig Hajiyev, Huseyn Kurdoglu, Agajavad Alizadeh, Shamil Salmanov, Arif Safiyev, Hamid Abbas, Ibrahim Goychaily, Firidun Aghayev, Jafar Jafarov, Vagif Huseynov. Yashar Garayev came from the university audience to the academy as a mature critic. His first articles were devoted to historical and contemporary problems of Azerbaijani drama. Yashar Garayev entered the literary process as a theater critic in the 60s, and his periodical articles about the most prominent performances of the Azerbaijani National Theater were published. Soon, Yashar Garayev was confirmed as the most prominent theater critic and dramaturgist of the 20th century in Azerbaijan. He was well versed in dramaturgy and theater theory, and his first monograph entitled "Tragedy Genre in Azerbaijani Literature" was a new type of research. This monograph brought to our scientific opinion the current theoretical concepts of tragedy, the social, philosophical and literary-artistic factors that determined the emergence of this genre, as well as the structure and typology of tragedy were investigated. The formation of Azerbaijani theater and dramaturgy in the status of schools, heir-inheritance relations was the concept realized in Y. Garayev's articles on theater and dramaturgy...
Sirindil ALISHLI,
ANAS Department head of the Nizami Institute of Literature,
Doctor of Philology, Professor.
