Offen, tolerant, fantastisch

Summary In the ongoing debate about identity in post-Soviet Kazakhstan, contemporary children’s literature assumes the potentially trailblazing task of mapping prevailing social discourses on identities while offering young readers alternative concepts of identity embedded in imaginative, fantastical narratives. This paper examines three such works, Batu and the Search for the Golden Cup by Zira Naurzbayeva and Lilya Kalaus (2014), Alʼka’s Silver Tamga by Nurayna Satpayeva (2022), and the story collection The Mysteries of the Land of Mountains and Steppes. A Literary Journey through Kazakhstan (2022). All three books construct an open and tolerant Kazakhstani community in which people of different origins live peacefully and respectfully with each other and in harmony with their surroundings, the country’s flora and fauna. The writers thus revitalise the civic discourse of identity while simultaneously opposing a nationalist discourse, not only the Kazakh but also the Russo-Imperial one, which continues to be present in Kazakhstan.