Humanities & Social Sciences 5 (2016 9) 1166-1173 ~ ~ ~ УДК 82-31:821.512.122 Circle as a Refl ection: “Almaty” Text as a Wayto Express Traditionalism (D. Nakipov’s Novel “The Circle of Ash”) Nurikamal Isina* L.N. Gumilyov Eurasian National University Astana, the Republic of Kazakhstan Received 03.02.2016, received in revised form 23.03.2016, accepted 29.04.2016 The article deals with the poetics of a circle and a text as a way to express traditionalism in contemporary literature. <...> The object of the analysis is the novel “The Circle of Ash” by the Kazakh writer D. Nakipov. <...> The purpose of this article is to prove that this work of literature is written in the spirit of traditional mythological poetics, which excludes the validity of characterizing it as a postmodern novel. <...> The fi rst is to develop a philosophical-aesthetic basis of the notion of “Almaty” text that is introduced for the fi rst time (by analogy with “Moscow” and “St. Petersburg” Russian literature texts) as a sign of traditionalism in Kazakh literature. <...> The second is to identify a refl ection as a manifestation of mythological poetics. <...> The third is to study the semantics of the circle as a central phenomenon in refl ection. <...> The results of the study can be used for holding special courses and seminars on the poetics of a literary text and the contemporary literary process, etc. <...> The analysis of the poetics of the circle in D. Nakipov’s novel “The Circle of Ash” allows organizing and compiling literary interpretations of the circle, defi ne it as the basic principle, forming the essence of the composition of the author’s whole work. <...> Critics enthusiastically welcomed the author’s work. “The Circle of Ash” marked a peak, or fl ourishing, of postmodern novel in Kazakh literature. . <...> But the most interesting and perhaps the most important thing is that it is the fi rst full-fl edged Kazakh postmodern novel, which is artistically independent on Western traditions”(Badikov, 2008, 237) The present work is devoted to the idea of substantiating the novel as a work written in traditional mythological poetics, which excludes the validity of characterizing itas a postmodern novel. <...> The fi rst is to develop a philosophical-aesthetic basis for the notion of “Almaty” text introduced for the fi rst time (by analogy with “Moscow” and “St. Petersburg” Russian literature texts) as a sign of traditionalism in Kazakh literature <...>