Freedom of Speech and Changes in Literary Criticism (80-90)

The article examines how Uzbek literary criticism changed in the years of independence, once freedom of speech was established in literature. Critics reassessed works written in the Soviet period, returned to Jadid literature and rediscovered the legacy of Abdurauf Fitrat, Abdulla Qodiriy, Usmon Nosir, G‘afur G‘ulom, Oybek, Hamid Olimjon and Abdulla Qahhor. Their attention shifted to the inner, spiritual world of the human being. Articles published in the literary-critical annual “Kamalak” are discussed as early examples of free analysis and interpretation. The author argues that the main task of the period was not to create a new methodology but to adapt the existing one to the demands of the time, moving away from template-based analysis toward reading a literary work as a discovery. Uzbek literary criticism still has no unified methodology, and its renewal is tied both to social change and to the creative freedom of the writer.