Symmetry and Asymmetry as Linguocultural Phenomena in English And Uzbek Literary Discourse

Abstract

This article examines symmetry and asymmetry as linguocultural phenomena in English and Uzbek literary discourse. The study proceeds from the assumption that literary form is not merely an aesthetic shell of content, but a meaningful cultural mechanism through which authors organize value systems, temporal perception, emotional balance, and social hierarchy. Symmetry is interpreted as a principle of equivalence, recurrence, compositional balance, and semantic parallelism, while asymmetry is understood as a principle of deviation, disruption, incompleteness, and perspectival unevenness. The aim of the article is to identify how these two principles function in English and Uzbek literary texts and how they reflect national models of world perception. The research is based on a comparative linguoculturological and stylistic analysis of selected English and Uzbek prose texts, including works by Jane Austen, Virginia Woolf, Abdulla Qodiriy, and O‘tkir Hoshimov. The analysis shows that in both traditions symmetry is associated with ethical order, ritualized communication, and textual cohesion, whereas asymmetry often marks psychological tension, historical rupture, social conflict, and the individualization of voice. At the same time, the English literary tradition tends to realize symmetry through irony, conversational equilibrium, and compositional framing, while Uzbek literary discourse more frequently links symmetry to relational ethics, communal value, and narrative circularity. Asymmetry in English prose is often internalized as fragmentation of consciousness, whereas in Uzbek prose it is frequently connected with historical upheaval, moral imbalance, or a break in communal continuity. The article argues that symmetry and asymmetry should be treated as culturally loaded discourse strategies rather than purely formal stylistic devices.