The Angel and the Path: Dissonance with Hyperbolic Sections of Kazakh Proverbs Paper Presented at the American Folklore Society Conference

Researchers have explored the relationship between proverbs and various religious texts, but have given scant attention to the question of how theological understanding can affect proverb interpretation. In this paper, I explore instances when theological dissonance inhibits Kazakhs from recognizing the hyperbolic aspects in Kazakh proverbs both in the classical period (1850-1900) and today. Hyperbole gives emotional emphasis to the primary thought (Clinton 2007). Yet, in the examples that I consider, Kazakhs disagree with the proverb theologically and insist on interpreting the hyperbole literally. These disputed proverbs that address significant issues continue to be used in discourse and collections nevertheless. Keywords: proverbs, Post-Socialist, Kazakhstan, rhetorical devices,