Abstract
The study of folklore contributes to deeper understanding of not only our past, but contemporaneity as well, because they are closely interconnected with each other. The main purpose of this paper is to study art and creative practice of Kazakh narrators, the peculiarities of their repertoire as an integral system, to characterize the narrator schools of Kazakhstan, and also to reveal the correlation of tradition and improvisation in the art of narration. The paper determines the role of epic narrators in social and cultural folk life, as the direct creators and bearers of epic tradition; their creative types are revealed. The art of narration is described based on local peculiarities, style directions, originality of repertoire and other criteria; it is distinctively characterized by its inhering properties. The narrators develop the epic heritage, using the zhels to create the artistic images. These zhels, created on the basis of improvisation, were subsequently turned into stable, unchangeable components of the literary piece; they were supplemented, became the independent pieces and were performed by the narrators directly before large epic pieces. The zhels became the poetic device of Kazakh art of narration, proved in this article. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2015.v6n4s1p481