ARTISTIC INTERPRETATION OF THE HUMAN–SOCIETY RELATIONSHIP IN LUQMON BO'RIXON'S NOVEL PEOPLE IN THE SCORCHING HEAT

Abstract

This article examines Luqmon Bo'rixon's novel People in the Scorching Heat (2015) through the lens of human–society relations within post-independence Uzbek prose. Drawing on the theoretical frameworks of Georg Lukács, Mikhail Bakhtin, and Yuri Lotman, and engaging with scholarship in Uzbek literary studies, the study analyses how the novel's central characters — Lola, Samad, and Ashur — embody the conflict between individual selfhood and the constraints of a patriarchal social order. Particular attention is given to the novel's use of psychological parallelism, irony, and symbolic imagery as vehicles for social critique. A comparative reading of Lola alongside Chingiz Aitmatov's Jamila illuminates divergent narrative strategies for representing female agency. The article argues that Bo'rixon's work constitutes a landmark achievement in contemporary Uzbek fiction, rendering perennial tensions between personal freedom and collective norms in psychologically nuanced and aesthetically sophisticated terms.