Non-literal Conflict: (T. Tabidze VS. O. Mandelstam)

Abstract

The paper is marked by the attempt to re-read and thoroughly analyze Osip Mandelstam’s assay „Two words about Georgian Art“.

Mandelstam visited Georgia three (1920,1921, 1930) times and dedicated to it several essays, five of which were published in communist press. All of them comprise sudden attack and  biased criticism against political and cultural orientation of Democratic Republic of Georgia (1918- 1921), which did not go without an aggressive response of T.Tabidze. Researchers (the Georgians among them), although, had always kept way from the detailed analyze of Mandelstam’s dubious passages and prefer to maintain, at least, political correctness.

As the research has shown, both – the common pathos and some specific toposes of an essay are saturated with the great-power chauvinism, anti-European and pro-soviet spirit.