THE EVOLUTION OF CLASSICAL DETECTIVE AND ANTI-DETECTIVE GENRES: PLOT AND NARRATIVE STRATEGIES IN THE PROSE OF ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE AND NAZAR ESHONQUL

This article examines the formation and transformation of the classical detective and anti-detective genres in the course of the development of literary thought from a comparative-typological perspective. Arthur Conan Doyle's works featuring Sherlock Holmes and the philosophical-psychological prose of Nazar Eshonqul are analyzed in terms of plot construction, the sequence of events, narrative perspective, methods of information presentation, and the problem of understanding truth. The primary aim of the study is to identify the relationship between the principles of logical deduction, systematic analysis of evidence, and mystery resolution characteristic of classical detective fiction and the uncertainty, ambiguity, and problematization of truth inherent in anti-detective poetics. The study employs comparative-typological, structural-narratological, hermeneutic, and contextual methods of analysis. Doyle's A Study in Scarlet and The Hound of the Baskervilles, together with Eshonqul's short stories The Man Led by a Monkey and The Wind Cannot Be Caught, as well as his work The Coffin, are selected for comparative analysis. The findings demonstrate that in classical detective fiction, the plot moves toward a final resolution through the collection and logical interpretation of evidence, whereas in Eshonqul's prose, the complexity of interpreting reality, symbolic imagery, and subjective perception play a significant role. The article employs the concept of the anti-detective not as a direct generic classification of Eshonqul's works, but as a comparative analytical category for interpreting certain narrative and epistemological features of his prose.