Uzbek literature of the XX-XXI centuries highlights the perestroika in the socio-political and cultural spheres. Attempts to comprehend the literary development in the country have been made by domestic critics and scholars. The evidence of this phenomenon is the discussion about the modern literary process in the socio-political magazine «Shark Yulduzi», as well as some articles in the magazines «Yoshlik», «Taffakkur», «Guliston», «Uzbek tili va adabiyoti», the newspaper «Kitob Dunyosi», etc. There is also no consensus in Uzbek literary criticism about the desire to self-organize literature.

Karimov's paradigm is based on the theory of reflection and the role of the category of consciousness in the development of socio-cultural and literary thought. The researcher, relying on the genre principle of dividing prose, emphasizes the basic lines of development of the narrative style of writing:

1. expanding the ideological and thematic field of literature;

2. strengthening interest in social, moral, spiritual, and family issues;

3. The expansion of humanism and psychologism;

4. Addressing the issues of mentality and identity of Uzbek people;

5. The philosophical search for the purpose of being.

The above lines, according to the views of H. Karimov, are based on two types of writing: realistic and modernist. Thus, the writer says that the modernist principle of displaying reality is qualitatively new for uzbek literature. The researcher considers this as an objective reason — «in the conditions of totalitarianism, the use of this aesthetic was unattainable»[ Karimov 2010: 142], and a subjective reason — «writers who are able to fully use all the principles and techniques of modernism have not yet appeared in literature»[ Karimov 2010: 149]. According to H. Karimov, more successful experiments of modern writers are manifested in the use of symbolization and metaphorization. With the exception of the above, the writer establishes the appearance of the «detective line» in uzbek literary work, which is also new for national literature. A realistic form of writing, according to the views of H. Karimov's work is determined by the active improvement of historical and conceptual prose, and modernist tendencies are expressed in works with philosophical, ideological, moral, and mythological types of issues. The literary critic concludes that modern uzbek literature is characterized by the pluralism of the author's concepts of worldview, the emergence of new forms of comprehension of reality and the redirection towards the mental orientations of national images.

Y. Solizhonov also puts forward his own concept of the modern literary process, based on the genre division of literature. The scientist believes that modern uzbek literature increases the traditions of the literatures of the East, thereby it is in the process of mastering the trends of world literature. At the same time, the literary critic notes that the world literary trends at this stage do not act as a solid foundation in the construction of uzbek works of art. He also emphasizes that under the influence of the rapid growth of the socio-political and economic worldview, a literary and artistic consciousness is being formed, which tended towards complexity. A predominant issue in the work of a number of prose writers is highlighted: «the fate of man in a market environment» [Solizhonov 2011: 147] with the main character, who either successfully adapted to market relations or transformed into a «defective» personality.

According to Y.Solizhonov, each of the writers reveals the tragedy of loneliness in his own way. Putting forward a number of writers (T.Malik, H.Dustmukhammad, U.Hamdam, T.Juraev, S. Vafo, Z.Kurolboy kizi, etc.) on the above-mentioned basis, the researcher identifies a number of new trends for uzbek literature in the creation of modern works of art.:

1. a departure from didacticism and mentoring.

2. the transformation of the role of women in modern society, the creation of conscious images of women who are in a situation of choice.

3. symbiosis of socio-cultural and ideological-moral types of problems.

4. an attempt to understand the historical path of the Uzbek people in the era of socialism.

5. A penchant for dynamic plots (as a negative trend that gave rise to «market writers and literature»).

6. Susceptibility to journalism and descriptiveness. These trends point to the development of Uzbek literature.

G.Garipova examines the phenomenon of the «cultural millennium», which covers the turn of the XX–XXI centuries, sums up the epoch, envisioning the cultural trends of the new style. This milestone is quite significant in this regard.

The 90s of the twentieth century, having accumulated the experience of the entire epoch, realized in the same period an absolutely new, previously unknown atmosphere in which the social, cultural and personal are so closely in contact in the ideological symbiosis of the «new world» that they «programmed» the beginning of the 21st century to co-create with these innovations for this period.

As G. Garipova notes, the period of the turn of the XX – XXI century was marked by global, significant for modern history innovations in all socio-political and cultural spheres. Since Independence, national architecture and painting, theater and dance arts have reached a different level of development, and a new impetus has emerged in the development of music and cinema. It is possible to identify in all areas of cultural development the deepening of interest in national history and traditions, the search for the primary sources of national worldview. In uzbek literature, the creation of works of art with a pronounced national mentality has become the primary focus since the 80s of the last century.

G. Garipova emphasizes that today not only the names of poets and prose writers, playwrights and literary critics, who were unlawfully rejected from uzbek literature during the 60 years of the Soviet period, «forgotten» due to historical reasons for many decades, continue to return to national culture, but also a new literary galaxy of national writers appears, striving to-to think and create in a new way, – «not to repeat» and «not to break away» at the same time. Like air, they absorbed into themselves, into the space of their «cultural memory», the whole story of the «dying» and «rebirth» of artistic national consciousness, which determined the literary image of the twentieth century, the century of the «dehumanization of art», according to Ortega y Gasset [Garipova].

The literary critic states that the consequence of this trend was the intensity of the development of personal issues from the point of view of the «philosophical consciousness» of a Person, rather than a politically «conditioned reality». At the beginning of the 21st century, the question of the development of Uzbek literature was raised, while there was still no important criterion of objectivity in assessing the category of «literary process» – a view from the outside, that is, from the standpoint of the historically accomplished. But, being at the initial stage of the formation of Uzbek literature of the 21st century, the literary critic emphasizes that we have the opportunity to observe the formation of the literary process, which is quite complex, dynamically ambiguous, caused by the formation of the latest cultural system within the framework of the artistic national paradigm.

Uzbek literature of the late twentieth and early twenty–first centuries is characterized by some patterns and trends common to the artistic national consciousness as a whole. The phenomenon of the «edge of the ages» undoubtedly makes the influence of the «fluidity» factor of a number of literary trends on the logic of the modern artistic process. The comparison of two literary periods – the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and the turn of the twentieth and twenty–first centuries, provide an opportunity to talk about the integrity of the evolution of national literature in terms of the continuity of philosophical and ideological and artistic and aesthetic attitudes.

However, the «inside» view allows us to identify another independent «internal» aspect of the analysis of the modern literary process – to present the Uzbek artistic process of the early 21st century in the cultural and literary context of the entire twentieth century, which has only recently received its theoretical meaning and historical assessment. The modern literary situation in this regard is assessed from the point of view of the genesis and integrity of the entire system of mental and literary phenomena of the epoch. This feature allows us to identify milestones in the development of twentieth-century literature and identify epochal trends that predict the innovations of the 21st century.

Thus, the Uzbek literary process of the 21st century is considered as a new stage in the gradual movement and development of the literary process that frames the entire period of national literary history in general and the twentieth century in particular. Thus, it is important to mention the specifics of the turn of the twentieth – 21st century, which is a conceptually significant transitional stage in the literary movement from the last century to the present century.

Not only the ideological base of Uzbek literature has changed significantly, comparable to the new synthesis of the traditional oriental mentality and the ideology of a new type of order (the era of Independence), but also artistic poetics, which absorbed the synthetic program of the era as an aspiration to textual metamorphoses of different planes. The general global trend of merging realistic and modernist poetics into a single artistic field is one of the global innovations of the artistic plan in Uzbek literature at the turn of the 20th – 21st century. The most painful, the literary critic notes, is the question of the level of correlation between traditional and innovative in Uzbek literature of the specified period, because it is determined not only by the new names of Uzbek writers, but also by the continuing creative names of such classics of Uzbek literature of the twentieth century as poets A. Aripov, E. Vakhidov, R. Parfi, O. Matchan, Sh. Rahman., U. Azim, novelists A. Yakubov, U. Hashimov, H. Dostmukhammad, E. Agzam, H. Sultan, S. Sieev, T. Murad, playwrights T. Mirza, A. Samad, U. Umarbekov, Shukrullo and a number of other writers. They preserved and transmitted in the new decade of the new century such an important quality of uzbek literature as humanism and spirituality.

 Important changes in the social life of society have affected, firstly, the issues of artistic and aesthetic awareness of a person and his life in a new reality, issues framed by philosophical, ethical, moral and aesthetic shifts from socio-personal issues towards personal-being.

The reform of the socio-political system and the change in the global status of Uzbek statehood have led to a qualitative transformation not only of the status of Uzbek literature, which defines itself as «independent» and «independent» (from political centrism, but not from global trends and traditions), but also of its internal artistic space, defined by a system of aesthetic and ideological-artistic structures. – themes, ideas, problems, genres, style, images, etc.

Thus, it was in this inner space of Uzbek literature at the turn of the twentieth and twenty–first centuries that the separation (marked in the literary process by the «Soviet» period of the 20s and the end of the 1990s) of national art of the twentieth century with the traditions of classical literature, Uzbek artistic «innovation» of the beginning of the century, on the one hand, was overcome, and with global artistic trends and practices, on the other hand. This affected and postponed for decades the emergence of its own invariant of the non–classical type of artistic consciousness and established the individuality of its integration into the system of national literature - as «inclusions» of images and elements of the poetics system (very vividly – modernism of the period of symbolism, partly – existentialism).

It is significant that the advanced character is determined by the internal eastern traditions of the use of symbols. Uzbek literature of the twentieth century was significantly influenced by the classical tradition of symbolizing the figurative system as a way of artistic expression of the reality of the world and the inner space of man, characteristic of the ancestral national art and identified in earlier centuries in folklore sources, in the Persian literary system, in the artistic work of A. Navoi, Z. Babur, B. Mashrab, etc.

However, critics point out that the inclusion of Uzbek literature in the world community of the twentieth century (in different periods in its different systems) nevertheless involved certain phenomena of the modernist trend in its internal space. This process was carried out as a «synthetic inclusion», rather than replacing, for example, realism with modernism.

It is interesting that even these phenomena, factors and trends were not borrowed in their pure form, but were interfered with in the process of deep revision by Uzbek writers as an eastern mentality and national tradition (for example, Zoroastrian imagery, Sufi philosophy, and the Jadid historical concept).

G. Garipova notes that despite significant achievements, certain shortcomings can be noted in the artistic search of modern Uzbek writers. In particular, the desire for deep disclosure of a person's inner world sometimes overshadows reality itself – a multifaceted, complex social and moral world. In the Eastern anthropological tradition, a person is initially perceived as a part of the people, and not as an isolated person detached from his social purpose.

Modern Uzbek literature, reflecting on new realities, continues to keep in touch with the traditions of the past, including the heritage of national classics. In this context, it is important to objectively re–evaluate the key stages of its development - from the literary heritage of Jadidism to the artistic models of socialist realism and the Perestroika period, as well as to take into account new trends shaping the literary process of the 21st century.

Thus, the researcher emphasizes that the literary process always turns out to be more complicated than it seems at first glance. Today, the development of uzbek literature is accompanied by two interrelated processes: firstly, its integration into the world artistic space as an independent literary phenomenon, and secondly, the penetration of global artistic trends into the national literary system. However, the weakening of translation activities, especially translations from Uzbek into other world languages, significantly slows down this process.

 Thus, G. Garipova notes that in Uzbekistan, in all spheres, there is an increased interest in national history and traditions, the search for the roots of the national universe. Since the 80s of the 20th century, the literary critic has noted the creation of works of art with a distinct national mentality.

The literary critic considers the literary process of the 21st century as a new stage in the progressive movement and development of the literary process, encompassing the entire period of national literary history.

 However, he contradicts himself by stating that at the turn of the XX-XXI centuries, the discontinuity in the literary process of the Soviet period of the 20s and the end of the 80s was overcome. The literary critic notes the following trends in the development of the Uzbek literary process at the end of the XX-beginning of the XXI century:

1. the integration of realistic and modernist poetics into a single artistic space.

 2. moving from the socio-personal perspective to the personal-being perspective.    

3. The use of symbolism, which creates a new neo-mythological writing practice based on Eastern mentality and national traditions (Zoroastrian imagery, Sufi philosophy, Jadid historical concept).

4. striving for the trends of «magical realism».

5. creation of works with a synthetic picture of reality and interspersing as extra-narrative elements of the religious and mythological model of the creation of the «eternal world», as well as works with a line of synthesis of various kinds of mythostructures (parables, legends, fairy tales) in the text without plot differentiation of reality and myth space.

6. the tendency to in-depth metaphorization, which gave rise to a kind of analytical psychologism.

Summing up, G. Garipova states two ideas:

1. Uzbek writers use elements of modernism and neorealism in their works.

2. Realism is one of the dominant features of the development of the literary process.

In our opinion, the development of uzbek literature at the turn of the XX-XXI centuries has a special character. Since gaining independence, Uzbekistan has embarked on its own path of socio-economic, political, cultural development, moral, ideological and cultural criteria. This determines the emergence of various ideological and aesthetic trends in the modern literary process, manifested both in the renewal of style, genres, visual and expressive means capable of appropriately describing the phenomena of modern reality, and in the search for ethical and ideological support in the heroic past of the Uzbek people.

Literary critic S.E.Kamilova, emphasizes that in Uzbekistan there is: «<...> in all spheres of cultural development, there is an increased interest in national history and traditions, the search for the origins of the national worldview. Since the 80s of the twentieth century, the literary critic has considered the creation of works of art with a pronounced national mentality as a priority».

The literary critic also considers that the literary process of the 21st century: «<...> as a new stage in the consistent movement and development of the literary process, covering the entire period of the history of Russian literature. Moreover, he immediately contradicts himself, claiming that at the turn of the XX-XXI centuries <...> there was a gap. The national artistry of the twentieth century, identified in the literary process by the «Soviet» period of the 20s-the end of the 80s, with the traditions of classical literature, the Uzbek artistic «innovation» of the beginning of the century <...> and with world artistic trends and practices were overcome»[Kamilova 2016: 53].

The researcher notes the following trends in the development of the Uzbek literary process at the end of the XX – beginning of the XXI century:

 1. The fusion of neorealist and modernist poetics into a single artistic whole.

2. The transition from a socio-personal perspective to a personal-existential one.

3. The use of symbolism, which creates an updated neo-mythological writing practice based on the Eastern mentality and national tradition (Zoroastrian imagery, Sufi philosophy, the historical concept of the Jadids).

 4. Gravitation towards the trends of «magical neorealism».

5. The creation of works with a synthetic picture of reality and certain inclusions as non-plot elements of the religious and mythological model of the creation of the «eternal» world. He also works with a synthesis line of various types of mythological structures (parables, legends, fairy tales) in the text without a plot distinction between reality and the space of myth.

6. The tendency towards in-depth metaphorization, which gave rise to analytical psychologism.

Summing up, it should be noted that G. Garipova suggests two ideas: «Uzbek artists of the word have introduced elements of modernism and neorealism into their works»; «one of the dominant lines of development of the literary process is neorealism»[Kamilova 2016: 65].

A large volume of Uzbek literature texts is devoted to the artistic development of modern reality, illustrating innovations in the life of Uzbekistan, both positive and negative.

Among the first are the emergence of civil liberties and freedom of conscience, the transition to gradual reforms, the formation of democratic institutions in the country, and the cultivation of national cultural values.

In the literature of this period, both in realistic works and in texts with modernist principles of presentation, the form of first-person narration is paramount, which indicates the confessional and expressive nature of writing. The leading issues are national, ideological and moral issues that have produced numerous systems of views on modern life in general and on uzbek people in particular. Mass literature is also becoming more active during this period (they are pushing towards the genres of adventure stories and romance novels. A significant example is the sentimental works of N. Hashimov, which are in demand in the book market) and fiction, which seeks not only to look into the future. Revealing the secrets of the past in the works of T. Malik.

The current state of literature is marked by a synthesis of the traditions of uzbek classical literature, the traditions of realism, modernist and postmodern trends. In other words, the literary situation means that all the processes and phenomena that have ever occurred in the history of Uzbek literature actively influence literature today, and it shapes the future of literature. This period is due to the following factors: the deepening of democratic reforms and the formation of civil society in the country, cultural globalization, modernization and the widespread use of the Internet.

Works reflecting problem-thematic fields, as variants of extrapolation of prose trends of the 20th century, through the prism of neorealism, allow us to highlight the following: the artistic and substantive level of Uzbek works that recognize the crisis of socio-cultural perspective is associated with predictive modeling of the world and awareness of the perspectives of man and society, as well as fixing the deformation of human spiritual consciousness in the modern world. The embodiment of multifaceted philosophical tasks, getting rid of totalitarian consciousness, freedom of the individual, man and the state, leveling the personality, etc. It is carried out with the help of the author-narrator, endowed with various functions: an observer, a fixator, a commentator and a hero-narrator, while both the narrator and the hero are usually observed in all texts, however, at different points of contact, they approach or move away as much as possible, which, in turn, makes the author's position transparent.

 In addition, in such works, depending on the autonomous role of the narrator or the hero, which speak about the objectivity / subjectivity of the narrative, one can trace a tendency towards a synthetic form (objective-subjective). If in Uzbek neorealist works the author's intention has the character of a catastrophe, the orientation to the parable signals dangerous tendencies leading to disaster.

Thus, the works devoted to rethinking the historical past, the fate of people of the 21st century, and various wars are problematic and thematic in nature. The authors resort to multi-vector methods of understanding a bygone reality, creating collective images of generations of a bygone era and metaphysical images of death, fate, etc.