Medea and Totalitarian Ideology in “Colchian Medea in Kolkhoz” by Givi Margvelashvili

Abstract

The paper studies an interrelation existing between a totalitarian ideology and art objects in the novel “Colchian Medea in Kolkhoz” by Givi Margvelashvili, the art objects being Medea’s statue (1968, Bichvinta) and Lenin and Stalin’s monuments. The metafictional revival of Medea’s statue invites the audience to reflect on the following: what’s the point of statues’ reanimation, i.e. of their self acknowledgment. The research made evident that if Medea’s reviving revealed the role of totalitarian ideology in victimizing of an opponent, the probable reanimation of the soviet leaders’ monuments will make clear their appraisal by a history both for the leaders themselves and for a society.