Abstract
This article examines the narrative structure of Kazakh heroic epics (Qabanbai Batyr, Qoblandy Batyr, and epic narratives of Abylai Khan) through the analytical framework of reader-response theory, specifically Wolfgang Iser’s concept of indeterminacy (Leerstellen), extended by tools drawn from cognitive narratology. The study is positioned as a typological and theoretical contribution rather than a reception-empirical one: its claims concern the structural affordances of the text and not measured reader behaviour. The central observation is that Kazakh heroic epics systematically minimise internal monologue and psychological exposition at moments of decision, producing structural gaps that are closed not by authorial exposition but by culturally available schemas – namys, ar, and obligation to the collective. Building on the domestic scholarly tradition (M. Auezov, S. Qasqabasov, R. Berdibai, A. Margulan) and on cognitive narratology (D. Herman, M. Caracciolo, L. Zunshine), the article argues that the epic’s distinctive work lies in the interaction between generic indeterminacy and schema-triggering cultural content. Four close readings are offered. The article situates Kazakh epic within the broader typology of oral heroic narrative (Homeric, Old French) and refines rather than opposes the existing cognitive-narratological vocabulary. The contribution is twofold: a structural description of a hitherto under-theorised corpus in current cognitive-narratological terms, and a clarification of how culturally specific schemas modulate indeterminacy in heroic narrative.