HISTORICAL STAGES OF THE BETRAYAL MOTIF IN UZBEK SHORT STORY WRITING

This article analyzes the historical stages in the development of the betrayal motif in Uzbek short story writing on the basis of a chronological and poetic approach. It examines the moral and didactic interpretations of the betrayal motif in folklore and classical written literature, its social and educational content in Jadid-era short stories, its psychological deepening in the short stories of the 1960s–1980s, as well as its internal, subtextual, and symbolic manifestations in independence-period and contemporary literature. The study reveals the evolution of the betrayal motif from a moral-normative phenomenon to an issue of personal choice and conscience. The article aims to identify the stable semantic core of the betrayal motif in Uzbek literary thought and to trace its poetic transformation.