Creative Characterization and Narrative Innovation in Post-Soviet Azerbaijani Literature: Identity, Memory, and Cultural Transformation

Abstract This article examines how post-Soviet Azerbaijani literature redefined creative and narrative forms, challenging Soviet literary norms through experimentation and new modes of characterization. Following independence in 1991, Azerbaijani literature moved from the transitional, trauma-marked works of the 1990s to the pluralism and experimentation of the 2000s and, after 2020, toward a discourse of triumph. Writers such as Aziza Jafarzadeh, Huseyn Ibrahimov, Elchin Afandiyev, Anar, and Afag Masud employ non-linear structures, allegory, symbolism, and introspection to transform inherited Soviet forms into vehicles of cultural resistance. Drawing on postcolonial theory (Bakhtin, Bhabha, Spivak, and Annus) and close textual readings, this article situates Azerbaijani literature within broader Eurasian and postcolonial frameworks, demonstrating how creative characterization fosters new expressions of identity, memory, and cultural reimagining.