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Introduction
According to Huseynov (2022), from a historical perspective the concept of folklore emerged in Europe in mid-nineteenth century. Originally, it connoted tradition, ancient customs, and surviving the mid-nineteenth festivals, old ditties and dateless ballads, archaic myths, legends and fables, and timeless tales and proverbs (Ben-Amos et al., 2020). However, during its history, the folklore field has advanced several core ideas, among them that folklore-learned, practiced, and transmitted largely outside official settings and channels-constitutes a significant proportion of all cultural expression, not just a minor corner of it; that vernacular narratives, objects, beliefs, and performances offer especially productive routes toward understanding the identities and values people and communities create, and the extent and operations of human imagination; and that folklore shapes and is shaped by everyday life in our own (or any) time and place, not just in the past or somewhere else. Then, since its founding, the field of folklore studies has built an inclusive view of culture and creativity in communities by examining expressive life across boundaries of time and distance (Lloyd, 2021). It is therefore the science of tradition (Hartland, 1904).
One of the most important aspects of the success of the Azerbaijani children’s literature in the second half of the twentieth century is that it is dominated by folklore and the rich spiritual culture of the people. Folklore has been one of the main sources of literary thinking throughout history. The rich spiritual culture of the people, the system of values that has been forming for thousands of years, behavioral labels, moral norms, and the whole archetype of memory are realized in folklore, or rather preserve their existence in folklore. The passion for the existence, the artistic and intellectual foundation of the ethnos can be realized through words and art. National memory is, in fact, an event of self-expression of the people and ethnicity. The second half of the twentieth century is interesting in the development of Azerbaijani literature with its peculiarities, styles and diversity of thinking. Enrichment in prose, poetry, drama, publicity, literary criticism is an example of this (Ruhangiz, 2019).
It is known that folklore is of vast educational and cognitive importance for children. Folklore promotes formation of children’s aesthetic thinking and moral mental upbringing, behavior, respect for adults and it also helps children to study nature, environment, enriches their vocabulary and develops their creative ability. Thus children’s´ folklore is an interesting branch of oral people creation that is addressed to children’s interests, behavior and moral foundation. Children’s folklore develops in tales, riddles, lullabies, etc. created by adults for children. Children’s and adult’s creation have always developed in parallel, changed and enriched their forms and contents passing from generations to generation. Even now it´s sometimes difficult to determine the concrete date and history of published materials. Undoubtedly children’s creation is unique and original (Orujeva, 2013).
Children's prose of the 60s and 80s is an important part of Azerbaijani children's literature. This phase is an interesting, broad, and productive field. Literary criticism is called "new generation" and their works are called "new prose" due to the fact that our poets, whose literary examples are known in children's prose, have created a new, literary and spiritual environment. Azerbaijani children's prose of 60s-80s is diverse in terms of genre and style, and in terms of social content, spiritual value, by strengthening the position of literature since it turned to new topics, increasing the cognitive importance of artistic children's prose. Children's prose writers were really very active and businesslike in their search for themes and ideas. They caught the pulse of the times, understood the demands and wishes well.
In their search for new literary ideas and themes, they seriously consider the demands and concerns of the training, education, and upbringing process, and at the same time, they think about social and moral life, household issues, human destinies, and focus on mental and moral aspects and behaviors. It should also be noted that children's writers of this stage do not focus on the description of feelings, emotions, and psychology but they rather they preferred high educational aspects. During the creation of artistic works, the delivery of advanced ideas was focused on, they served to transform the young generation into a useful being as a member of society, to give meaning to the way of life and activity.
Among the most prominent artists in this field, we consider Alaviyya Babayeva. In the works of this author several topics are addressed like science and education, humanism, friendship, companionship, call to mercy and justice, struggle against social inequality and injustice, calling for optimism, prosperity, and practicality, as well as love for the country, fighting for the land, motherly and sisterly zeal, spiritual feelings such as instilling parental love are manifested. However, although it is known in the country, its global diffusion is very limited, which is incomprehensible due to its relevance in Azerbaijani literature. Taking this into consideration, the objective of this work is to discuss the ideas embodied in the works of this author, extolling her position as a national referent of prose. For this, initially a historical analysis of her life is carried out, which allows us to understand the cultural environment in which she developed, which naturally conditioned her style and aesthetics. Later the literary content of her work is addressed. Due to this, the main methods used in the investigation were the historical-logical method, inductive-deductive method, and literary analysis.
Development
Some highlights of Alaviyya Babayeva’s life
Alaviyya Babayeva was born on August 12th, 1921, in Baku. She was a wonderful storyteller, prose writer, translator, who played a role in the development of Azerbaijani children's prose. The writer entered the Medical Institute with the desire to become a doctor, but she understood that her life was connected with literature, and therefore she graduated from the Faculty of Philology of ASU. She started her literary activity in 1936 with the story "Two lives" published in "Adabiyyat newspaper". In 1950, a book called "My Teacher" was published based on his stories published in "Adabiyyat Gazete". This was an impetus to her effective creative activity. Since 1951, she has been a member of the Azerbaijan Writers' Union. She devoted 77 years of his life to writing - creation, artistic translation. Sh had 63 books published and 9 novels. "In the 2000s, when the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Heydar Aliyev was on a visit to the People's Republic of China, they presented Alaviyya Babayeva's work "People and Destinies" translated into Chinese and said with great pride: "We have translated the work of the Azerbaijani writer Alaviyya Babayeva into Chinese. This work has become very popular in the country". This is a sign of national respect for the author's work.
From a young age, Babayeva also translated modern Russian and foreign literature. L. Tolstoy, I. Turgenev, A. Chekhov, M. Gorky, V. Korolenko, G. Paustovsky, A. Gaidar, V. Byankin, V. Astafyev, V. Ponova, Y. Charushin, Y. Sotnik, A. The works of Zegeres (from the German) and others were published in his translation in mass circulation. In 1936, he impressed everyone with his speech at a meeting held in "Zarya Vostoka" newspaper in Tbilisi. Then the newspaper writes: "A schoolgirl came to the podium and spoke so beautifully that she fascinated us. We asked, who is this? They said that this is a writer, he writes beautiful stories". After her speech at the days of Azerbaijani literature in Russia, Nabi Khazri said that if it wasn't for Alaviyya, we would be ashamed.
In the 60s and 80s, she contributed to the development of Azerbaijani children's prose. Alaviyya Babayeva is the author of numerous novels, short stories, and stories such as: "Stories", "Lone Tree", "Country Roads", "In Autumn", "Spring Again", "Mulberry Tree", "Iris Spike", "Braids", "People and destinies", "Where are you, friend, where", "Farewell", "Crazy Sona", "I'm not alone", "Grandfather's apiary", "What are the leaves whispering about", "My dear ones", "Braids", "Village" Journey to the Roads", "Last Turn", "Shadow", "Magic Stairs", "You Don't Look Like a Tulip", etc. In her works, she tried to teach young and school-aged children the secrets of life, to be correct, reliable, loyal, and to choose an honest path in family, school, friendship, companionship.
Alaviyya Babayeva’s critical thinking
In the early twentieth century a number of social-political events happening in the world - the wars waged by the imperialist countries attempting to preserve their main position in the political world, as well as the confrontations occurred as some peoples rose to struggle for restoration of their national independence both caused serious backwardness in the field of economy and the severe crisis of humanism. The writers and poets who tried to save the mankind from crisis of humanity considered that the human issue in fiction should be reviewed from new standpoint, reflecting the spiritual-psychological world of person, highlighting the issue of human and environment, they tried to suggest the readers self-consciousness, attempted to disclose social-political factors that caused the crisis of human philosophy (Eugster & Hasanov, 2016).
Along with the socio-political picture of the society, Babayeva illuminated the human heart and spirituality in his works and reflected the truths and realities of the modern era with sweet stories. Regardless of the field of the events, she tried to arouse interest in education in children's readers and provide information about educational events. She tried to write down his ideas in a way that was suitable for the children's age level and that they could understand. She tried to educate children who will be important people, personalities and parents of the future with the power of his pen. We observe that this has always worked well. In her works, care, objectivity, teaching are always at the forefront, specially about the wonders of nature, about the world, and in general about every field.
Babayeva's story "Buttermilk" is one of the most successful and meaningful in terms of teaching the secrets of life. The main character Naila's wide range of interests, ideas and inquiries about ordinary or extraordinary events make the reader think. The kindness, sincere, natural, spontaneous actions of the little girl were described with interesting expressions. The hard work and simple behavior of working people educates children in the example of Naila, directs them to think and make independent decisions, and strengthens them not to stumble on their life paths. On the other hand, in the story "The Lonely Tree", the goal of the prose is to create words and cooperation among children, to promote friendship and cooperation. The description of the forest covered with green moss and a single tree, Nadir's conversation with his grandfather, questions and answers related to life issues are reflected.
Due to her deep knowledge of child psychology, Babayeva exposes the flaws and misdemeanors of her young heroes with a simple emotion and tries to dissuade them from doing bad things. The writer conveys the positive qualities she wants to see in people, the problems that concern her; respect and reverence for parents, loyalty in friendship, standing out as a student, etc. She tries to make her dream come true in his stories. This prepares the ground for instructive results and not for dry didacticism. Babayeva strongly condemns such qualities as talkativeness, playfulness, long-windedness, idleness, hypocrisy, highlighting that such actions are not only in children, but are important to correct to avoid its presence in adults.
Other stories like "Sabir's Sister", "Deputy Grandmother", "Honey Old Woman", "New Year", "They fought, reconciled", "Gunah Mastani" etc. gave more vivid and believable colors. Despite being the first creative work of Alaviyya, "My Teacher", "Golden Calf", "Little Artist", "Ayran", "Sabirin's Sister" etc. by creating children's characters with different personalities, her stories helped readers to think and look at life events with new perspectives. The story "A single tree" has a deep, philosophical meaning, it highlights valuable principles such as protecting nature and taking care of ecology. Each story is a world, each image is presented as a product of an artistic imagination. The heroes of these stories are Tarlan, Altay, Rena, Maryam, Kakik, Gulzar, Telli, Rahila, Kamil, Elkich, etc.
Due to her family situation, A. Babayev often had to change her place of residence. Living in different parts of Azerbaijan helped her learn life more deeply. This also helped her effective creative activity. The author, who has a broad outlook, intellectual level, and most importantly, a big heart, knew that history and modernity are connected by unbreakable threads. One cannot be complete without the other. She repeatedly mentioned in her works that every writer should know his history and past perfectly. Therefore, before starting each novel he studied the distant past of the Azerbaijani people from archives, history, memories, and living witnesses who saw this period. The published works of the writer in more recent years suggest that the author was in contact with the people who created and built in the modern era.
In her works, the author conveys to the reader people of different fates, their inner world, feelings and excitements, and their way of life in a very convincing way. The subject line of his works serves the purification of society, the victory of the right, and the moral purity of people. Be it Mushkunaz "Colorful people", Bebir "The last turn", Bulut "Maybe there is not tomorrow", Shirin "Goodbye", Elkhan Bilanderli "Where are you friend, where are you" and so on, positive heroes in her works are people who maintain their spiritual purity and purity. They do not break even if they come to terms with difficulties in life and are subjected to physical pressure. The subject line of her works serves the purification of society, the victory of the right, and the moral status of people.
Another important story of the author is "Colorful Dreams". It tells about the fate of Mushgunaz, whose life was full of tragedies. The work is told in the language of the little neighbor's daughter, Lala. Lala loves and cares for aunt Mushgunaz, an unfortunate woman who was a victim of repression and whose house was confiscated after her husband's arrest. This woman, who lost her children, is subjected to the pressure and insults of her neighbor, the prosecutor and his wife Ulfat Khanum. Ms. Ulfat sees this woman very much in her small herpes coma and wants to get her out of there. With the fragility of a child, Lala observes the injustices done to aunt Mushgunaz and often runs to her to comfort her. Time comes, after the acquittal, the attitude towards aunt Mushgunaz changes. They allow him to live in his house. Then Mrs. Mushgunaz remembers the troubles that happened to her and says: "What about my loved ones? In this work, she manages to convey his humanist ideal through artistic means and increases our sympathy for the people who helped Mushgunaz. Among the people surrounded by Mrs. Mushgunaz, there are people like the kind teacher Salima and aunt Sugra. Their consolation and Lala's love keep Aunt Mushgunaz alive, but this troubled woman, unable to withstand the misfortunes that happened to her, suddenly dies. The author, who entrusts his development as a writer to little Lala, expresses his attitude to the characters through Lala.
Although A. Babayeva wrote this work in 1968 and submitted it to "Ulduz" magazine, it was not approved for publication. "It is a good work, but we cannot publish it was the answer. This topic cannot go in the press now. "- it was said to him. The author did not doubt that she would hear this answer, but his goal was to read the story to as many people as possible. The work was published twenty years after it was written and was loved by readers. People need attention and care, people need a heart that feels, a heart that bleeds. This work, which determine the human ideal through artistic means, directs the reader's attention to the main issue.
In the work "Colorful Dreams", the author describes the events that happened or may happen and shows the reasons for the spiritual victory or defeat of the picture. The main factor determining A. Babayeva's creativity is that she knows and feels the environment she writes and describes well. In the narrative "Colorful Dreams", the author looks at the ups and downs of his life, notes the influence of the people she saw and came in contact with, famous poets, writers and intellectuals on his creativity. Also, she does not forget about his spirituality, dreams and aspirations, the difficulties she faced throughout her life, and some interesting and impressive moments of her life. In this sense the work "Colorful Dreams" is a historical-literary chronicle of the complex and tragic epoch in which the author lived.
About the novel "I'm looking for you", Gulu Khalilov, a well-known critic, wrote in 1985: "It is a really high-volume novel". As she admits, the author herself is one of the art lovers who travel widely. Therefore, while remembering Mushfiq, H. Javid, A. Javad, S. Mumtaz, he cannot turn a blind eye to the tragedies and slanders thrown at them - devotees of this art. She writes with heartache about their imprisonment and repression victims. The author often remembers her childhood in his work. The child happily remembers that her memory is very strong, that he memorized the poem "Only a tree" that Mushfiq had told him and recited it to the poet by heart and surprised him. She exposes the moral less, duty-bound, selfish scientists who write articles against them by order.
Since the beginning of the Karabakh war, the writer often went to the tents, met with the refugees living there, learned about their miserable living conditions, lamented the fate of children who lost their parents killed. by the Armenians in front of them, and who were captured in the Karabakh war in the person of little Samira. In the story, the author writes: “I was in the tent city on hot summer days. Even chickens and chicks can withstand that heat and thirst." Living under the care of her uncle in one of these tents, she was speechless (she was speechless when his parents were murdered in front of his eyes by Armenian separatists). He sees Samira and the help of her with the support of good people, the girl's language opens.
Babayeva wrote that he has been to Siberia twice. On the banks of the Angara River, which divides the city of Irkutsk, where H. Javid was exiled, he and his colleagues remember Javid and think: Will the unjustly spilled blood remain on the ground? Revolution, what gave Siberia? Siberia was a place of hard labor for progressive, courageous people. Until now, when we heard the word concentration camp, the dishonorable, fascist Hitler came to life before our eyes. However, prisoners sawing wood in these forests were attacked and taken away by hungry bears waking up from their winter sleep.
The author, with heartache, remembers that her uncle, a police officer, who was arrested and exiled to Siberia, faced such a tragedy. His uncle got shot in the armpit in front of his fellow prisoners. He gave a detailed description of this event in the novel "Farewell". On a trip to Siberia, he stands on one of the torture methods used on prisoners. "The prisoners who did not listen to their word and lost their way were stripped to the waist, their hands were tied behind their backs, and they made them sit on their knees on these iron heads. There are huge mosquitoes here in spring and summer. The mosquitoes were clinging to the sweaty body of the prisoner and sucking his blood. Those returning from the forest in the evening witnessed a terrible scene.
The author completed the work "The Last Turn" in 1999. Although the work is about family and household, the moral code is brought to the fore. A. Babayev keeps the most interesting and tense moment of human life under observation, and writes down the creative, psychological state and its social consequences in a laconic language. In the process of studying this particular moment, we see the complex, spiritual world of our time. While establishing the subject line of the work, the author reveals the events happening in Babir's family through the observation of little Gulajar and the language of the house servant Sayad. The diaries of Dr. Sona, Babir's wife, bring a liveliness to the work. Babir, who prioritizes cleanliness, purity and sanctity between husband and wife above all else, is faced with the betrayal of his beloved, younger, beautiful wife. Sona is a beautiful, educated doctor. Even if her husband does not love Leopard, she is loved by her husband. The author describes Sona's spiritual and psychological upheavals, her regret for her betrayal of her husband, and her internal conflicts in a unique and natural way. It is believable that Sona and Babir commit suicide in the work. The image of Leopard, who loves cleanliness, purity, and loyalty in the family, differs from the characters surrounding him. On the one hand, his spiritual sufferings, and shocks, on the other hand, his sublime love for his wife, lead to suicide.
Also, in the author's novels and short stories, we come across the ideas followed by a writer who searches for human spirituality, deals with human emotions and spiritual thinking. Therefore, in many places, the life events described by the author are combined and form a unity. In "Perhaps there is not tomorrow", kindness, selflessness, useful works, eliminating evil are the factors that help a person to be happy, rejoice from the heart and live a life worthy of a person. In this work, which mainly talks about the urban environment and the life of our intellectuals, the principle "people need people" is put forward. The author said in one of her interviews that if the novelist is just an observer of her time, it is very little. She should be a researcher and a mirror of the time she lives in, going through the whirlwind of life.
Babayeva dedicated the work "Maybe tomorrow didn't happen" to her beloved brother Rasim Babayev, who emigrated six years before him, but did not know his death. In this work, we see the main character - artist Bulut Ildırımoğlu's outlook on life and warm attitude towards people. The most important thing that distinguishes an artist who keeps up with his time is his third eye. God's gift - with the third eye, he perceives what many do not see! The third eye is "Bulut Ildırımoğlu's fate and destiny star." Maybe because of this third eye, he loses his first love - Farida. The author correctly summarized the bright, positive moments that he observed and wanted to see in life, in human existence, in the faces of such characters as Bulut, Farida, Nadir and Rafi. These people are selfless people who protect the human name from imperfect and ugly qualities in the truest sense of the word.
But what explains their dedication and how does it manifest itself? In fact, these people do not show unusual shyness. They fulfill the tasks that all human beings can and should do with dignity. With their character and actions, they once again prove that a person needs more care than an individual relationship. Bulut loves his art. His paintings, still lifes, Absheron plates capture the hearts of the audience and caress their souls. He is known as a talented artist, but there are not a few people who are envious of this talented artist, who pull at his feet, and who prevent his exhibition from being held. Although these things affect the artist's health, his works are exhibited not only in Azerbaijan, but also in other countries with the help and insistence of his loyal friend Nadir.
The author also gave a lot of space to the love relationship between Bulut and Farida. Although he loves Farida with all his heart, he neglects her. His devotion to art binds him to the workshop, two young people who love each other cannot meet. Bulut does not see the fault of not being able to meet Farida, but in himself. When talking about Nadir and Farida, he says with regret. "Fate also turned against him, his life ended in failure. In this matter, I can blame only one person - myself! … ". Was Farida Bulutsuz happy? Indifference and mistrust of people sometimes lead to tragedy. Farida expected attention, caress, and a warm attitude towards her from Bulut. But he can't do it, his life failed. This way, in "Perhaps Tomorrow Didn't Happen" the events are based on real life and an honest description of the truths of life is given.
The author, who started a new phase of his creativity after the independence of our state, brought a new breath to Azerbaijani literature with two new works - the novel "Farewell" and the short story "Colorful Dreams". The novel "Farewell" written in 1994 took its rightful place. This work can be called a kind of autobiographical novel. Young scientist Shafaq Dadashova wrote in the article "Characteristics and Genre Features of Autobiography": "Autobiography is written by well-known, prominent people who have a certain position in society, and in it the author expresses his personal characteristics, opinions, moral values as openly and sincerely as possible. So, on the basis of these works, we learn about the sometimes-subconscious dreams of the author, and we also get detailed information about the collective, subconscious, that is, the subconscious values of the nation to which the author belongs, which are not able to appear so clearly in the novels.
The author does not forget modern writers. When talking about their creativity, she also comments on the independent view of life, the ability to understand the social environment, and their uniqueness. In this field, Afaq Masud and Mehriban evaluate Vazir and write about M. Vazir: "When reading the stories of a male writer, which reflects the thousand faces and one thousand games of life, and reveals and interprets the secrets of our days, months, and years, which are played in completely unexpected situations, one feels that even though he was young, he lived a black and white, painful life. In the 60s and 70s of the last centuries, when the famous writer Suat Darvish met a group of young Azerbaijanis in Turkey, he said: "I have read Alaviyya Babayeva's stories. Give her my regards. The stories had a very interesting effect on me. She will be a great novelist of the future."
This foresight of the famous Turkish writer came true. Alaviyya Babayeva's books were published in Russia, China, France, Iran, Japan, Turkey, Israel and other countries. The great Turkish writer Tahir Kamal wrote in 1968: "When I was on vacation in Bulgaria, I read Alaviyya Babayev's short story "Shadow" (the work was published in Turkish in Bulgaria), I highly appreciated it. I respectfully shake Ms. Alaviyya's writing hand." These are the words of Chingiz Farajov, who is a fan of the writer and reads her works again and again: "I have been friends with Ms. Alaviyya for more than 40 years. I saw such high qualities and positive characteristics in him that most of us do not have. This is where the height and civility in the works of Alaviyya, who has a broad outlook, a high intellectual level, and most importantly, a big heart, comes from here. The works of the writer, whose words are intact, are read in one breath. I am not wrong if I say that Alaviyya Babayeva's novels are at our national level. The synthesis of Eastern culture and Western culture is clearly felt in these works. To see this, it is enough to read the novels "Goodbye" and "Perhaps Tomorrow Didn't Happen".
Finally, Alaviyya Babayeva always care about young people from her heart, always tried to publish the works of talented people and plan their books. Although she did not work in the field of pedagogy, she did not spare her help in training young journalists and writers with his true pedagogic skills. Even today, there are several people who fondly remember Alaviyya Babayeva's service. In fact, Alaviyya Babayeva is an artist whose rank is difficult to measure, who is hardworking and therefore loved by gaining respect and admiration. Honored journalist Flora Khalilzadeh wrote about her:
"Alaviyya, who devoted her life to public life, literature, creativity, and artistic translation, has many merits that distinguish her from her colleagues. Her courage, and productivity are in place, this writer worked side by side with men in the battle of literature. She is a writer who is able to point out the faults of many when the time comes, who lives and creates only for the sake of literature, who never claims to be "me" and who boasts that "I am an ordinary person of literature". When I respectfully said in front of her artistic services that Ms. Alaviyya, you have already said your word in literature. We are proud of you. Smiling slightly, she said, "I still have a lot of topics to write about. I can never be satisfied with myself. After all, if I don't write, I'll die
Conclusion
In the article it was possible to see how the historical context in which Alaviyya Babayeva developed had a great influence on his artistic thought, which he masterfully captured in multiple works. The author, in his search for new ideas and literary themes, seriously considered the demands and concerns of the process of formation, education and upbringing of Azerbaijani children. However, her work transcends children's literature, because as analyzed at the same time he reflected on social and moral life, domestic affairs, human destinies, and mental and moral behaviors. A writer has a social duty towards his people, and in the case of Alaviyya Babayeva, we can conclude that she had a significant impact in transmitting national values, traditions, and idiosyncrasy. With this article we hope that her work will be better known outside the limits of Azerbaijan as the recurring themes in her work are transversal to all societies.
