Myth, Ritual and Symbol in Folklore and Literature
Abstract
The motif of eternal recurrence originates from ancient folklore and biblical narratives. The entirety of the Universe has been conditioned by the unity of beginning and end In the Bible and folklore, the eternal recurrence has been associated with the symbol of road encoding profane and sacred archetypes. By means of the a Georgian family narrative, Nino Haratischvili’s novel Eighth Life (for Brilka) portrays a model of the eternal recurrence showing, alongside with the story the heroes’ themselves, the saga of Georgia in the socialist period. The phenomenon of the eternal recurrence, hints to the reader how the eighth chapter of the novel may end, the chapter which has only a subtitle and ends in a blank page