Contemporary Issues of Literary Studies - International Symposium Proceedings
“Contemporary Issues of Literary Studies” is proceedings of annual International symposium, and includes topics and problems relevant to the modern literary criticism, as well as unpublished results of important research.
Shota Rustaveli Institute of Georgian Literature
The Crucified Verse – Two Poetry Collections with the Same Title
Émigré poets frequently express a profound sense of tragedy in their works, which serves as a link between lyricists of different epochs. It is noteworthy that the kind of emigration - whether it be leaving one’s native country or a feeling of internal exile and alienation – does not diminish the severity of the tra­gedy and deep-seated loneliness. The spirit of émigré poetry, as reflected in the collection The Crucified Verse by both David Kuru­lishvili and Meri Bitsadze can be summarized as a painful and tragic longing for one’s own individuality, identity, and a “spiritual bridge” to the reader. The majority of David Kurulishvili's collection The Crucified Verse published in 1996, consists of sonnets.
Light and Shadows of the Literary Portrait of Alexander Bagrationi
The article is dedicated to the prominent Georgian figure of the eighteenth century, Alexander Archil Bagration, who went through the most difficult path of life - from emigration to generalship, to the first Feldschermeister of Russia. The article presents the philological and literary interests of Alexander Bagration, his passion for bibliology and translation activities, the works of Simeon Polotsk and the project aimed at creating an artillery manual in Russian and Georgian. The article uses the correspondence of Euro­pean diplomats published in Russian by Acad. Juansher Vateishvili, which concerns Alexander Bagration.
The Main Themes and Issues of Contemporary Emigrant Poetry
Emigrant poetry represents a vital dimension of contemporary Georgian literature, flourishing in the twenty-first century amid globalization and migration. It reflects Georgian authors’ spiritual experience in foreign spaces, marked by nostalgia, identity loss, and the will to preserve cultural memory. Lia Chiqovani’s poetry exemplifies this trend, blending sorrow, faith, and hope into a universal human voice. For Chiqo­vani, the homeland is a spiritual foundation, and emigration – a path to self-discovery. Her emotionally char­ged verse transforms pain into energy, showing that through language and memory, emigrant poetry sustains identity and eternal love for one’s homeland.
The Artistic – Publicistic Discourse of Georgian Emigrant Memoirs
The study of emigrant literature requires expanding the spectrum of research directions. Within ar­tistic-documentary discourse, our research focuses on memoir prose through genre, artistry, and memory stu­­dies. We analyze two significant works: Revaz Gabashvili’s ,,What do I Remember” and Valodia Gogua­dze’s ,,Memoirs”. The Georgian emigration wave after 1921 produced compelling memoir literature, which became the sole material for filling "white spots" in history falsified by Soviet ideology. Documentary and journalistic discourse transforms this memoir prose into a multi-faceted, valuable resource for interdis­cipli­nary research, offering a vital counter-narrative to political distortions while preserving the authentic nati­o­nal memory of Georgia.
Juozas Kėkštas’s Existential Fight for Freedom and the Musicality of His Poetry
Lithuanian émigré poet Juozas Kėkštas (Adomavičius, 1915–1981) lived across Europe and South America, experiencing repeated arrests, Soviet imprisonment, and wartime service in Anders’ army, later organizing Lithuanian periodicals in Rome and Buenos Aires. This paper examines the stages of his emig­ration and focuses on the peculiarities and musicality of his poetry using comparative methodology and exis­ting scholarship. It argues that his work blends rebellious expressionism, avant-garde poetics, existen­tialism, and žemininkai ideas, unified by themes of freedom and solitude, while extensive musical imagery and formal analogues (variations, rondo, compound forms) shape its emotional dramaturgy.
Shio Aragvispireli's Novella “Memory” – for a Discourse on the Inner World and Creativity of an Immigrant Writer
At various times, Georgians living and working abroad for political purposes played a major role in guiding and shaping Georgian literary processes. Such was the "Georgian Liberation League", which was for­med in 1892 by students living in Warsaw. Shio Aragvispireli, who was in exile, was imprisoned for nine months, during which time he wrote the novella "Memory." In the story, the writer shows us how a single childhood "harmless" pastime can influence a person's personal and spiritual transformation. By under­stan­ding the value of the work created by Shio Aragvispireli while in exile, the writer's work and the cultural and literary significance of his work as an emigrant writer will be discussed.
Literary Metamorphosis: The Cult of the Reader and Authorial Identity
In I Am a Book Hero, Givi Margvelashvili reflects on existence, authorship, and identity through a postmodern lens. Influenced by Borges, he blurs the boundaries between life and text, suggesting that hu­man identity is inseparable from artistic creation. Declaring “I am a book hero,” Margvelashvili implies that the author attains immortality through the reader, who simultaneously “reads themselves” into the work. His vision redefines the act of reading as creative participation rather than passive reception. By mer­ging reality and fiction, Margvelashvili constructs a space where intellectual freedom replaces the ordinary, turning literature into a living process of mutual discovery.
Simonika Dadiani – Literary Aspects of the Painting of the “Georgian Modigliani”
The paper examines the literary aspects of the émigré artist Simonika Dadiani, whose work remains largely unexplored in Georgian scholarship. It draws on the artist’s notes and letters, many of which are still inaccessible. Born in 1916 in Imereti, Dadiani was forced to emigrate to France due to Soviet persecution of his aristocratic family. Living in Paris, he engaged with modernism and developed a style reminiscent of Amedeo Modigliani, earning the title “Georgian Modigliani.” His legacy, including family archives and donated canvases, reflects a fusion of national and cultural identity.
Lithuanian Statemen in the USA – Their Writings and Fates. Rethinking the Legacy of President Antanas Smetona
Lithuanian historical research shapes cultural and literary narratives, yet these accounts are often incomplete, inaccurate, or biased – especially regarding statesmen who fled to the United States and con­tinued working to defend Lithuania’s survival. This is evident in the legacy of Lithuania’s first President, Antanas Smetona (1874-1944), who left for America at the start of Soviet occupation. His writings express principled political resolve amid national collapse. Revisiting his and other exiled leaders’ experiences of lost independence, aggression, and betrayal restores moral clarity, sustains existential questions of state­hood, and helps literature remain grounded in historical change rather than drifting into detached moder­nist self-expression.
National Paradigms of the Newspaper “Sakartvelo”
Georgian emigrant press made a significant contribution to the formation process of Georgian socio-political thought. The formation of political parties that began in Georgia in the 1890s was preceded by significant changes, which were also expressed in the creation and actions of programs by national forces. Archil Jorjadze's "Common Action Platform" failed to awaken the nation, but the necessity of an action prog­ram for the "Tsnobis Purtseli" (Knowledge Sheet) group became apparent. This was accompanied by the group's formation into a political organization, for which the groundwork was prepared by the first printed Georgian emigrant newspaper "Sakartvelo" (Georgia), which was published in Paris from 1903-1905. As a result of studying the newspaper "Sakartvelo," it is established that the periodical laid the foun­dation for a culture of discussion with European diplomacy, outlined national paradigms, which subse­quen­tly became the cornerstone of Georgian emigrant press.
The motif of the swan song and its symbolism in Galaktion's poetry is inspired by Akaki's verse. Akaki's “divine” hymns evoke a sense of the sacred and the sublime – a state of exalted inspiration. Alon­gside these “divine” hymns, Akaki also refers to the swan song, defining it as the song sung before death, which conveys the feeling of life's end and the proximity of death. Galaktion absorbed Akaki's poetic worldview from his earliest years. The dying swan's song, found in the poem “Me and the Night,” expresses precisely this sense of death and directly echoes the symbolic experience of the threshold so vividly portrayed in Akaki's poems.
Cultural and Literary Links of Georgian Emigrants in Greece
Migration is one of the great challenges of the modern world, as it is based on many reasons. Since the 90s of the last century, our country has repeatedly become a participant in this great process. They had and still have a small Georgia there – a church, a cultural center, and the newspaper "Ellada". From Decem­ber 2002 to the end of 2016, the newspaper of the Georgian diaspora in Greece, “Ellada,” was published. Obviously, for Georgian emigrants in Greece, the newspaper "Ellada" is precisely the cultural and literary bridge through which they had a continuous connection with their homeland and at least a little alleviated the difficulties of emigration.
Hermann Buddensieg’s Translation of The Knight in the Panther’s Skin in Relation to Mikheil Tsereteli’s Interlinear Version
Hermann Buddensieg (1893-1976), who translated The Knight in the Panther’s Skin into German in the 1960s–70s–a translation first fully published in Tbilisi in 1976–notes in the preface that, as someone who did not know Georgian, he relied on Mikheil Tsereteli’s (1878-1965) then-unpublished interlinear translation in order to create a poetic rendition of the poem. He also acknowledges having benefitted from the consultations of Georgian Rustvelologists and Germanists. Thanks to Tsereteli’s interlinear version, not only the semantic content but also a significant portion of the poem’s artistic and expressive devices were adequately rendered in the translation.
The Interdisciplinary Foundations of Immunological Language Theory
During the development of language, new characteristic features emerge that form the language system, and their synergy leads to the conservation of free energy, which is expended on the formation of language ability to defend itself – language immunity. Accordingly, language is already capable of becoming the base language of a new language family, of inheriting its effective immunity to its descendant languages and to protect the individuality of its language family. Language system develops in rational and irrational ways. During irrational development, the distribution of spoken words and morphemes in the system is based on the Boltzmann distribution.
Anarchist to Assyriologist: The Path of Mikheil (Mikhako) Tsereteli
Mikhaḳo Tsereteli led a diverse career, serving as a professor in Tbilisi, Brussels, and Berlin, and specializing in Assyriology and Ancient Near Eastern history. His work spanned politics, scholarship, and public service, with numerous publications and participation in many international conferences. He edited and contributed to various émigré periodicals, notably helping introduce Georgian literature and culture to foreign audiences. Mikhaḳo Tsereteli’s archives hold valuable materials, including correspondence with Ivane Javakhi­shvili and Konstantine Kandelaki recollections of the little-known polemic between Ivane Javakhishvili and Iakob Gogebashvili which bare particular importance. Georgian and cuneiform notes entered in Vakhtang Ghambashidze’s “Patara Tsemi” guest book, show his deep sorrow over losing his homeland.
Several Variant Lines in Mikhako Tsereteli’s Edition of “The Knight in the Panther’s Skin”
The Rustvelological reflections of Mikhako Tsereteli continue to command the attention of re­sear­chers today. In this paper I discuss several variant lines and substantiate the validity of those readings that Mikha­ko Tsereteli favored in his edition. One such line is: “I sit nursing the love You planted” (201, 4). Another variant line is: “Waking I thought of her, when I fell asleep (I thought of her) in my drow­siness” (1193) The resolution of these lines once again attests to the editor’s profound knowledge of Rustaveli’s ar­tistic language, his textual sensibility, and the most delicate capacity for discerning nuances.
For Understanding the Old Testament Paradigms, Unfamiliar/Unfamiliarity, Persecution-migration in Hagiography
Unfamiliarity, as a universal experience of human existence, is understood differently in different eras (ancient, medieval, modern), cultures (Western/Eastern) and religions (Judaism, Christianity, Islam). Based on the texts of the Old Testaments and their exegesis, we outlined the biblical concepts of the unfa­miliar/unfamiliarity, longing, images, themes, plots and motives. This gives us an opportunity to examine examples of spiritual and physical unfamiliarity of the characters, examples of their internal and external migration, based on the biblical narratives and its exegesis. Show why internal migration becomes the basis for external migration. Discuss the effects and motives of poverty and exile, voluntary or forced relocation, temporary or permanent departure from their homeland.
At the Crossroads of East and West: The German Translation of Sulkhan-Saba Orbeliani’s “Wisdom in Lies” by Mikheil (Mikhako) Tsereteli
The first German translation of the work belongs to Mikhako Tsereteli, who published a complete translation of the work in Berlin in 1933. With the publication of this book, the Georgian Library Series was established in Berlin, Germany. In his introductory letter, Mikhako Tsereteli notes the literary features of Sulkhan-Saba Orbeliani's "The Wisdom of Lies", indicating that the work has a deep connection with world literature, with the literary understanding of the East and the West.
Portrait of Ilia Chavchavadze in the Emigrant Narrative
At this stage, we will only touch on the phenomenon of Ilia, thanks to which a suitable place was identified for Georgia on the world political map. For Spiridon Kedia, Ilia was “a rock grown from the heart of the earth”, and for Shalva Amirejibi – “the smartest Georgian”. Aleksandre Manvelishvili also perceived Ilia's contribution in the same spirit. As for Noe Zhordania, he still tried to disguise his long-standing con­frontation with Ilia and somehow covered up its scale. Mikheil Tsereteli summarizes all of the above as fol­lows: "Noe Zhordania was able to give the Georgian nation what Ilia Chavchavadze fought for..."
Time and Space in the Émigré Writings of Shalva Amirejibi (1925-1943)
The period of emigration often becomes a turning point in a writer’s life and creative work, as it separates them from their native cultural and linguistic space. Shalva Amirejibi’s letters written during his years in exile (1925–1943) represent not only documentary material reflecting socio-political ideas but also aesthetically crafted narratives. These writings can be productively examined through the lens of the chronotope, a concept developed by Mikhail Bakhtin, which refers to the unity of time and space within a literary text. The present article aims to analyze the temporal-spatial structures in Shalva Amirejibi’s writings from 1925 to 1943, and to highlight the function of the chronotope as a form of expressing identity, memo­ry, and cultural trauma.
Artistic Reception of Soviet Repressions in the Émigré Publication „The Homeland“ – „La Patria“ (1951-1953)
“The Homeland” – “La Patria” – a Georgian émigré periodical based in Buenos Aires was published under the editorship of Viktor Nozadze. The magazine clearly demonstrates the spirit of Georgian émigrés in the first half of the 20th century and their dedication to serving their homeland. The works published under the pseudonym of Mikhako Tbiliseli depict the Bolshevik terror of the 1920s and 1930s, exposing their ruthless and brutal nature. His memoirs vividly reconstruct the grim reality of Cheka dungeons and the tragic fate of those sent into exile – sometimes using their real names to enhance the authenticity of these events.
Publications of Ekvtime Taqaishvili in Georgian Émigré Press
Georgian scholar and public figure Ekvtime Taqaishvili was in France in 1921-1945 together with the members of the government emigrated from Georgia, where he published articles and research in magazines and newspapers abroad in the Georgian, French and English languages, Ekvtime Taqaishvili’s four monographs in the Georgian language (1933-1939) were also published in Paris. The paper deals with articles of Ekvtime Taqaishvili published in the Georgian language in the émigré press (Damoukidebeli sakartvelo, Sakartvelo, Kavkasioni, Kartlosi) on the topics of the history, archeology and literature of Georgia. These publications are noteworthy not only for their scholarly significance, but also from the viewpoint of demonstration of the worldview values, which is one more feature for representation of the civic portrait of this great figure.
The definition of the concept nation as a unity that has emerged on ethnic or state grounds, is diversed in the scientific literature. In this background the literary work `National Formation of Geor­gians` by the Georgian emigrant of the soviet period, Alexander Manvelishvili, is extremely interesting. The author provides an extended discussion of the genesis and major features of nation as a phenomenon, by means of which the primary goal of the work is attained - in a wide historical context and the establishment of the timespan of the final formation of Georgians as a nation.
Georgian Emigrant Literary Criticism of the 1930s about the Literary Process Taking Place in Soviet Georgia
The Georgian emigrant literature of the 20th century is part of the national heritage; along with the literary texts created in exile, the emigrant Georgian literary criticism is equally, and perhaps even more important. The emigrant critics campaigned especially harshly against proletarian literature, exposing the goal of the Bolshevik state to turn literature into a party, propaganda tool, the best class weapon. The article, using the example of publications by several Georgian periodicals published in Paris, presents the attitude of emmigrant critics towards specific authors and works.
Nikoloz Baratashvili in Georgian Émigré Literature
Following the 1921 Soviet occupation of Georgia, the ensuing resistance and the brutally suppressed national uprising forced many Georgian patriots into exile. Across Europe and America, émigrés founded significant political and cultural centers, launching publishing and journalistic activities that promoted Georgian culture. Their newspapers and journals regularly featured scholarly, literary, and journalistic texts about Georgia and its writers. Among them, romantic poet Nikoloz Baratashvili held a central place, ins­piring even the title of the Salia family’s Paris-based journal ‘The Fate of Georgi’. Presented article reviews émigré materials related to Baratashvili to advance studies of his work and Georgian émigration.
Georgian Literature and Culture on the Pagesof the “Revue de Kartvélologie Bedi Kartlisa” (1970-1980s)
The establishment of contacts between the foreign centers for the study of Georgian culture and Georgian scholars was greatly facilitated by the journal of Georgian and Caucasian studies - Revue de Kartvélologie Bedi Kartlisa, which was published in European languages ​​in Paris from 1957 to 1984(in Georgian from 1948 to 1964) . Under the leadership of the editors-publishers, Kalistrat and Nino Salia, the journal attracted the attention of scholars and the general public interested in Georgian art and culture around the world, and Paris became the international center of Kartvelology. Based on publications and personal funds, the work presents: The activities of Kalistrat and Nino Salia as organizers, researchers of Georgian literature and history , the significance of the works of the journal's foreign and Georgian correspondents, cooperation between them and translations of Georgian poetry in the context of the era. This is a general picture created on the basis of 16 volumes published during the research period (1970-1980s).
A Piece of History of Diplomatic Relations between the Georgian Government – in – Exile and Washington (1921-1933)
The article deals with the policy pursued by the Georgian government-in-exile to establish diplo­matic relations with the United States in 1921-1933, the assistance provided to the government-in-exile by members of the United States Congress and Senate, and the establishment of official diplomatic relations between the two countries. Despite the fact that Georgia was occupied and its exiled government was operating in Paris, those members of the US Congress and Senate who understood the difficulty of Georgia's situation supported it with their support - to have an official diplomatic representation in this great country of the world, which would help it more firmly oppose the Russian occupation regime.
Psychosocial Identities in Emigration Literary Discourse: Georgian Emigrant Literature. Georgian Diasporic Literature
Our research group has separated from each other, distinguished and studied: Georgian Emigrant Literature (from the 1920s to the 1980s); Georgian Diasporic Literature (from the late 20th century to the present). In these two qualities of emigrant literary discourse We investigated psychosocial identities (in­cluding cultural shock, trauma, alienation, nostalgia, resentment, spiritual and cultural distance, adap­tation, personal-cultural hybridity). The degree of creative potential of an individual, who has migrated overseas, is determined by their psychosocial identity, according to migration and cultural studies. psychosocial identities and accordingly significantly varies between Georgian Emigrant literature of the 20th century and Georgian Diasporic literature of the 21st century.
Mourid Barghouti – the Representative of Arabic Exile Literature
Arabic Exile Literature is known from the beginnings of the 20th century when the first refugees from Syria left for the USA. One of the biggest migration streams was caused by establishment of the Israeli State in 1948. Barghouti is a Palestinian who couldn’t return to Ramallah in 1967. During more than fifty years he changed thirty-five flats on three continents. In the paper his verses are discussed in context of modern Palestinian poetry, on the one hand, and in context of Arabic refugee writings, on the other. Bargouti’s identity crisis is connected to his losing in time and space.
The Problem of Language and Identity in the Works of Givi Margvelashvili and Herta Müller
Givi Margvelashvili, a writer of Georgian origin born in Germany, and Herta Müller, a member of the German ethnic minority born in Romania, present compelling narratives on language and identity shaped by their distinct cultural environments. In both authors’ works, the socio-political conditions formed by the post–Second World War interdependence of Eastern and Western Europe play a crucial role. During this period, intensified intersections of languages and communities produced a new cultural-identitarian order, reflected in their aesthetic vision. For both writers, emigration and the complexities of language remain central themes defining their artistic perspectives and the thematic foundations of their work.
James Joyce, who spent his entire life in voluntary exile, viewed English as the language of the conqueror, which had deprived Ireland of its native Gaelic. For Joyce, the language also became one of the problems which revealed itself both on the thematic level (Language is one of the many themes that his characters are concerned with and which is often debated in Dubliners, The Portrait of an Artist and Ulysses) and on the linguistic level where Joyce endeavors to push the possibilities of the language to its uttermost in Finnegans Wake, where Joyce attempts to create such a language where each signifier calls to mind numerous other connotations and gives innumerable possibilities for interpretation.
Ghassan Kanafani. About the Writer's Style Formation
Ghassan Kanafani’s works are focused on one topic - Palestinian conflict and Palestinian people’s tra­gedy. Edward Said, an acclaimed American writer and Professor of Palestinian origin, writes that national self-consciousness is a claim to belong to a nation and some culture, have a right to feel somewhere “as bet­ween friends”. Strong sense of ethnic and national identity is evident in Ghassan Kanafani’s stories and poems. Emotional imbalance, feeling of constant despair, loneliness and tragedy, constant return to the past, constant moves in time and space and monologues - everything that is very typical for Ghassan Kanafani.
Emigration as a Defining Factor of a Person’s Ethnic and Cultural Identity
Overcoming an alienation from his native land became the life-long problem of a famous philo­so­pher and German-medium writer Givi Margvelashvili [Giwi Margwelaschwili]. He wrote about this already in his autobiographical novel “Captain Vakush” [Kapitän Wakusch]. In the 1980s-1990s, Givi Margve­lashvili wrote documentary prose, which he titled “Perekatasroika (Notes of a Witness of Time, 1988-1993)”, in which he narrated the events of the collapse of the Soviet Union and return to Europe. The paper singles out the causes of ethnic and cultural identity crises among the generation born and brought up in emigration, that modern scientists call the hyphenated identity.
Some Concepts of "Migration’s Poetics" in Emigrant and Contemporary Diasporic Literature
The idea of a “poetics of migration” is prevalent in contemporary literary studies. It suggests various research methods and strategies. The poetics of migration is marked by the intertwining of these literary forms with autobiographical elements and migration narratives, genre-linguistic hybridity, multilingualism, and the quest for belonging. Language is a key factor in the poetics of migration. Authors utilize mul­tilin­gualism, code-switching, and hybrid forms to convey their complex migrant identity. Today, the "poetics of migration" is shaped by intercultural codes, influencing not only the themes and content of texts but also their aesthetics. In this instance, we present some concepts of migration’s poetics, along with the similari­ties and distinctions between Georgian emigrant literature and diaspora literature.
Issue of Cultural Identity in Al-Tayyib Salih’s writings
The issue of cultural identity is one of the most prominent themes in Al-Tayyib Salih’s writings, particularly in his novel “Season of Migration to the North” which deeply explores the tensions, trans­formations and crises that arise from intersection of Eastern and Western cultural influences. In his short story “The Doum-tree of Wad Hamid” Salih juxtaposes village life, its customs, beliefs and social structures with modern and urban life. Salih’s writings is a profound exploration of cultural identity in a postcolonial world. His characters reflect the internal conflicts of individuals caught between different worlds- colonial and indigenous, modern and traditional, Western and Eastern.
Existential Discourse of Russian Emigration in the 1920s-1930s
The Russian emigration of the 1920s–1930s gave rise to a distinct literary framework in which exile became a primary mode of existential inquiry. Separated from their homeland and confronted with poli­tical, cultural, and ontological rupture, émigré writers redefined exile as a condition that reshaped identity, memory, temporality, and metaphysical belonging. Exile was not merely a geographical displa­ce­ment but a transformation of human existence that destabilized relationships between past and present, self and world, continuity and meaning. Boris Poplavsky portrayed exile as metaphysical collapse. His protagonists inhabit liminal spaces between life and death, searching for meaning in a fragmented and indifferent reality. In his texts, Paris is not a refuge but a realm of spiritual disorientation. Through symbolic, dream-like, and visionary language, Poplavsky merges internal chaos with external dissolution, presenting exile as ontological disintegration. Gaito Gazdanov interpreted exile as a crisis of memory and temporal rupture. His narrators exist retrospectively, constructing identity through recollection rather than lived presence. Aleksei Remizov, by contrast, viewed exile as spiritual continuity, treating language as a vessel of cultural memory and depicting emigration as a path of inner transformation. Together, these authors shaped an existential model of exile defined by inward displacement and the search for meaning beyond historical rupture.
The Politics of Memory and Aspects of Collective Identity Formation in the Ethno-Consciousness of Georgian Communities in Turkey
The study examines the literary life of Georgian Muhajirs who emigrated to Turkey. Under Ottoman and later Turkish rule, the Georgian language became the sole marker of national identity, while literature functioned as a space of cultural memory. Through literary activity, Georgian communities in Turkey sought to create a shared cultural context for Georgians on both sides of the border, with translation playing a particularly important role. By translating canonical Georgian authors, Muhajirs reinforced cultural con­tinuity. The study also situates Muhajirism as a historical trauma and explores the cultural practices through which this trauma has been processed and continues to be reinterpreted.
The Phenomenon of the Georgian Spirit in Grigol Robakidze’s Thought
Until the 1930s, Grigol Robakidze always considered Georgian artistic and philosophical thought in a continuous context with Western civilisation, which largely led to the fact that the Tsisperkantsi people (and not only them) considered him their meter. While in emigration, Grigol Robakidze delved into the phenomenon of Georgian ethnoculture or ethnopsychology, as evidenced by his essays, publicistic writings, and artistic thought. Emigration became a kind of transformation for Grigol Robakidze – the more perfectly he wrote in German, the greater his interest in the spirituality of his own nation and the more intensively he explored, as he himself called it, the “Urphänomen” of the Georgian nation. Distancing from his homeland gave Grigol Robakidze’s work the same special flavor as it did in the case of Davit Guramishvili – it seems that the main driving force for both thinkers was thinking and reflecting on the fate of the homeland and the mentality of the Georgian nation, its purpose and the duty of a particular person to the country and God.
Postcolonial Utopia and Hope in Grigol Robakidze’s Novel, The Guardians of the Grail
Migrant literature plays a key role in shaping national narratives by reinterpreting homeland and memory from a “third space” of displacement (Bhabha, 1994). Early twentieth-century Georgian migrant writing, particularly Grigol Robakidze’s The Guardians of the Grail (1937), offers a significant example. Traditionally read as a remythologization of national collective memory (Tsagareli, 2019; Jaliashvili, 2018), the novel can also be approached as a postcolonial utopia (Ashcroft, 2017). In the context of Soviet occupation and 1930s repressions, the Grail functions as a utopian symbol that preserves hope, continuity, and belief in the nation’s future.
Emigrant Markers of Historical Space – Text and Context
In their works, Georgian émigré prose writers offered an reflection of the historical events of the 1920s and 1930s. They critically assessed the significance of the 1924 uprising, exposed the aspects of Soviet reality. In this regard, the well-known texts of Grigol Robakidze, the writings of Nikolo Mitsishvili, such a - as well as the literary and prose of Stephane Kasradze, and the novel by Indo Inasari etc. This expressive power is strikingly evident in the outstanding works of twentieth-century Georgian émigré literature. These works often challenge and transform the official narratives of "institutional memory," providing future generations with a deeper, more critical understanding of historical events.
Grigol Robakidze on Russian-Georgian Relations
Grigol Robakidze (1880-1962) made a particularly significant contribution to the expression of his standpoint on the assessment of the problems related to the relations between Russia and Georgia in two main directions: he critically presented the imperialist policy pursued by the Russian authorities towards Georgia; On the other hand, he uncompromisingly exposed the russifying governance policy of the rulers of the Russian Empire aimed at destroying the national individuality of the Georgian nation and all non-Russian ethnic groups within its state. Grigol Robakidze's critical attitude towards Russia was most evident in the letters written during the restoration of Georgia's state independence.
Mytho-Folklore Motifs in the Novel „The Cry of the Goddess“ by Grigol Robakidze
Grigol Robakidze’s life was inseparable with the world’s tumultuous social-political life of his time. He as a writer was presented in the centre of literary-cultural world of Europe and Georgia, took part in its modernization as a public figure, publicist, philosopher, poet and prose writer. Born and brought up in Georgia, young Robakidze boldly invaded European cultural life preserving his Georgianness and tried to cast the native theme into European mould. He is considered to be one of the founders of the modern psy­chological novel where the theme of a strong, mighty woman is dominant. His novel “ The Cry of the God­dess “ is its example.
The Doukhobors, Leo Tolstoy, and his Daughter Aleksandra Tolstaya – Two Stories of Escape from Russia
Tolstoy actively supported the Doukhobors, corresponding with their leader P.V. Verigin and following events in the Caucasus. His financial aid helped fund their emigration to Canada: he organized donations and gave royalties from the first edition of Resurrection. Later, Russian-American writer Maurice Hindus described Canadian Doukhobors and the radical “Svobodniki” (“Sons of Freedom”), assuming Tolstoy’s ideas influenced them. Surprisingly, many sectarians did not even know Tolstoy’s name. Another telling episode involves Tolstoy’s daughter Alexandra, who, while in Japan and refusing to return to the USSR, asked the Doukhobors for help moving to Canada—only to receive a courteous refusal.
Osip Mandelstam appeals to „Caesars' Europe“
In general, the paper discusses that well-known neurosis in the history of literature, when great authors sometimes do not understand each other, criticize each other's work and, accordingly, do not stand each other personally. In particular, such an attitude is observed in the case of Robakidze. Moreover: we deal with Robakidze's unilateral antipathy. Mandelstam never estimated Robakidze and perhaps did not even remember him. In the case of Robakidze, we observe another exception too: sometimes great authors compete with each other at the so-called chronotope distance, not knowing each other personally, but after meeting even become friends. What is more, they themselves recognize the role and significance of each other and even explain to others (like T.S. Eliot and James Joyce). As the research (Titsian Tabidze’s and Grigol Robakidze’s not much-talked-of texts) has shown, Grigol Robakidze, to put it mildly, did not like Mandelstam's poetry since 1914, and in 1920-1921, during the visits of the Russian poet to Georgia, when he personally made the acquaintance of Mandelstam and clearly learned his unbearable character, Robakidze stopped communicating with him altogether.
Thomas Mann in Exile: The Phenomenon of the German Nation in Thomas Mann's Essay „Germany and the Germans“
The subject of the research is Thomas Mann's essay “Germany and the Germans” (“Deutschland und die Deutschen”), written by him in 1945 – during his emigration to the United States. The purpose of this work is to introduce this essay into the modern literary-critical discourse. The essay “Germany and the Germans” is devoted to identifying the archetype of the German nation in the synthesis of historical time, philosophical, socio-political searches up to the events of the national catastrophe – the war of 1939-1945. The stereotype of German thinking is derived by the author not so much by critical as by artistic vision.
The life of the great Norwegian writer and Nobel Prize laureate Knut Hamsun (1859-1952) turned out to be so dramatic and turbulent that it remains a subject of great research interest. Hamsun visited America twice, but his attempts to gain a foothold there were unsuccessful, which probably contributed to the development of anti-American sentiments in his mind. This was especially strongly reflected in Ham­sun's work, published in 1889 – The Cultural Life of Modern America. The book, which is quite skill­fu­lly written from a stylistic point of view, is at the same time distinguished by its harsh, and not inf­requently overtly tendentious, criticism of American lifestyle, politics, and art.
Unknown Translations of Georgian Poetry and Ukrainian Literary Discourse in Emigration: Volodymyr Derzhavin’s „Georgian Anthology“
“Georgian Anthology” is a provisional designation that denotes the nineteenth- and twentieth-cen­tury Georgian poetry translated into Ukrainian by the well-known Ukrainian scholar and translator Volodymyr Derzhavin. These unknown materials were scattered across Ukrainian émigré periodicals. Volodymyr Derzhavin’s translations of Georgian poetry were printed in the 1940s in London, in the Ukrainian émigré publication “The Liberation Path.” These little-known translations form the primary sources for this research. The research will devote special attention to the translator’s role, to his cultural competence; to translational transformations and to the strategies for overcoming the barriers between the semiospheres of the “own” and the “foreign/other” culture, and so forth.
Fragments from the History of Ukrainian Literature in Emigration – Yurii Lavrinenko’s “The Executed Renaissance”
Yurii Lavrinenko’s intellectual legacy encompasses more than 300 scholarly and journalistic works. The culmination of his career was the anthology The Executed Renaissance, the publication of which un­veiled the concealed “literary crime” that claimed the lives of the majority of Ukrainian Soviet writers during the 1930s. The rehabilitation of writers labeled as “terrorists” in the 1950s and the subsequent pub­lication of their “selected works” did little to challenge the official Soviet narrative. Only the release of the 1959 Paris anthology – featuring the writings of executed, “re-educated,” and forcibly disappeared Ukraini­an authors – exposed the real cause of their persecution under Stalin’s regime. This edition is unique and re­mains to this day the most important source of the history of Ukrainian literature of the twentieth century.
A New Generic Form of the Novel – Elene Bochorishvili’s Stenographic Novels
Elene Pepi Bochorishvili is a Georgian writer born in Tbilisi, currently residing in Canada, who writes in Russian. She emigrated from Georgia in 1992. She is the founder of a new novelistic genre, which she herself termed the stenographic novel, characterized by writing based on short phrases and a humor-inflected style. The creative work of the Georgian writer clearly represents a multicultural literary pheno­menon, in which Georgian ethnic themes are articulated within the context of global globalization. In stenographic novels, epochal historical events are presented in a condensed form; the narrative is primarily set in Georgia during the Soviet and post-Soviet periods. Elene Bochorishvili’s stenographic novels constitute a new genre of intercultural literature.
Internal Emigration on the Example of Poetic Texts by Besik Kharanauli and Lia Sturua
Internal emigration – as a form of personal, cultural, and aesthetic resistance – plays an important role in the structure and content of both Besik Kharanauli's and Lia Sturua's poetry. In the reality of the Soviet totalitarian space, when physical emigration was practically impossible, poetic texts served as an "internal escape," a linguistic and conscious escape from ideological imprisonment. This phenomenon clearly resonates in the works of American poets, who, despite their different historical and social experiences, often appealed to the aesthetics of fear and inward-directed play.
Levan Bolkvadze authored a single work, „The Story of a Boy Who Found Himself in a Fairy Tale“, a political pamphlet against the Soviet totalitarian regime. The circumstances surrounding its composition and publication are particularly fascinating, demonstrating that time remains the most objective evaluator of literary processes. Through temporal perspective, characters emerge in sharp relief. Time serves as the primary symbolic-allegorical character, depicted as captured and bound. The work presents the "celebra­tions" of ignorance in King Chigidi's state, paradoxical figures born from fear, idyllic traps set by officials for citizens, and courses for studying goodness and „shame-honor restoration“.
The Main Character's Inner Emigration in Kote Jandieri's Short Story Invitation to the Cinema
In this report, I will analyze Kote Jandieri’s short story Invitation to the Cinema in which, with natu­ralistic precision are portrayed the passions and pains of the main character – a young man gifted with the ability to write. The environment and its accompanying sense of alienation are so oppressive for the protagonist that he chooses inner emigration, detachment, and deviance; A striking literary parallel can be observed between this short story and Françoise Sagan’s novel Sunlight on Cold Water: In working on this paper, I used hermeneutic, comparative, and analytical research methods.
The Voice of Migrants in Tamta Melashvili's Novel – „Told and Utold Stories: Germans in Georgia“
Tamta Melashvili's book, "Told and Untold Stories: Germans in Georgia," published in 2017. Using the method of oral histories, the author has added a reportage novel to contemporary Georgian literature. The novel "Told and Untold Stories: Germans in Georgia" reflects the 200-year history of Georgian-German relations from the consciousness of its direct participants. In the book, people tell stories of how their German grandmothers and great-grandfathers established their communities in Bolnisi, Asureti, and Sartichala; what the coexistence of Germans and Georgians was like; How German migrants became emigrants; What remains alive today, what has been preserved in photographs and memory.
From the Archives of Viktor Nozadze – The Social Norms in The Knight in the Panther's Skin
Viktor Nozadze’s unpublished manuscript “The Social Norms in The Knight in the Panther’s Skin” consists of three envelopes and is unfinished, lacking both an introduction and a conclusion. The first envelope examines the lexeme “life,” its etymology, semantic nuances, dictionary definitions, and equi­va­lents in foreign languages, though “death,” despite being mentioned, is not analyzed. The second focuses on the lexical units “face” and “faceless,” offering rich examples and insightful observations drawn from the po­em. The third envelope briefly addresses various lexical units but is less thoroughly developed. Neverthe­less, the manuscript represents significant scholarly effort and is valuable for researchers and readers inte­res­ted in Georgian literature and culture.
One “Traveling Copy” by Geronti Kikodze’s Book
This report deals with the book maintained at the personal library of emigrant writer, Ilia Kuchu­khidze, in particular, “The National Energy” by Geronti Kikodze. The book contains the notes of young people living in 20s of the 20th century, many of which deserve particular attention, as they reveal worl­dview of these young people. “The National Energy” was unacceptable for the USSR in 20s (it was regarded as a nationalist work). We can see one of the examples of how this banned book travelled between young people of that period and this shows one of the small but interesting episodes of the history of 20s.
In the esarly XX century, Giorgi Machabeli, Mikhako Tsereteli, brothers Leo and Giorgi Kereselidze played a certain role in presenting Georgia, which was occupied by Russia, to Europeans. Brothers Kereselidze established a “Group of separatists” and “Liberation committee of Georgia”, later they established “White Giorgi”; these were active party organizations, which did their best to liberate Georgia from Russia. After the Second World War, Leo Kereselidze was killed during bombing of Berlin, which made Giorgi Kereselidze abandon political activity and he fully dedicated himself to literature. Since 1956, in his letters addressed to his sister, Elelne Glurjidze, who lived in Tbilisi, Giorgi Kereselidze expressed his ideas and opinions about culture, art and writing, which contributes to the Georgian emigrational literature.
Comparative Analysis of Literary Texts Created by Georgian Emigrant Writers in the Homeland and Beyond Its Borders on the Example of Stephane Kasradze's Works
How does a writer's productivity change while staying in the homeland versus in emigration? To clarify this, we have selected Stephane Kasradze's works, who worked very productively in his homeland in the 1920s, and after going into emigration, he created his first text immediately upon crossing the border. The research is based on the analysis of the writer's known and some unknown texts. I believe this will interestingly present the process and results of the scientific research.
Between Heritage and Ideology: Grigol Peradze's Analysis of soviet Georgian Literature
This article analyzes Grigol Peradze’s critical engagement with Soviet Georgian literature within the broader context of émigré intellectual history and ideological discourse. Based on Peradze’s letters, essays, and interpretive reflections, the study argues that his enforced exile after 1921 produced a dual perspective that combined internal belonging to Georgian literary tradition with analytically productive distance. This position enabled Peradze to assess Soviet cultural policy, ideological mechanisms, and literary production with notable conceptual precision. The article situates his critique within comparative discussions of totalitarian cultural systems, demonstrating how exile shaped both his methodological approach and the ethical foundations of his interpretive stance.
Literary Reception in Simon Berezhian's Poetry
The work shows how the fate of the era was transformed, as if through the prism of Simon Bere­zhi­an's personal life and creativity. It was emigration that turned out to be time and space, a dimension that con­firmed the writer's national identity. Simon Berezhian managed to overcome the vanity of existence and carry out national literary codes through the most complex political and historical formations. The basis of Simon Berezhian's literary heritage is historical and gospel microcircuits, on which poetic reflections appear. The poet, with intense nostalgia and pain, creates an emotional and memorable linguistic-expressive space, in which verbal connotations reflecting the Georgian geographical landscape firmly imprinted in consciousness take a firm place.
The Poetics of Shalva Amirejibi’s Dedicatory Poems
Most dedicatory poems by the Georgian émigré poet Shalva Amirejibi employ established European and Eastern forms. Poems from Enamels (Blue Enamels) are addressed to his muse and wife, Veriko Anjaparidze. The ghazal Hazal comprises seven stanzas in high shairi (4/4, 2/4/2). The sonnet Manana Orbeliani, written in classical Besiki meter (5/4/5), uses abab/abba rhyme schemes and concludes with a sonnet key again invoking Veriko, possibly prompting Lado Asatiani’s pairing of names. On the Death of Kote Afkhazi reshapes the sonnet form through three quatrains and a three-line key, affirming Amirejibi’s role in modern Georgian poetic reform.
The Works of the First Wave of Georgian Emigration. Genre Classification. Review
The general purpose of this study is to examine the literary legacy of Georgian émigrés using modern me­thodologies. The ultimate goal is to study the worldview, conceptual, and stylistic characteristics of the lite­rary and artistic heritage of Georgian emigrant authors, their creative identity, and their creative connec­tions with Georgian classical and Soviet, as well as European, writing.However, to fully develop this re­search, it is necessary to overcome the initial stage associated with the genre classification of works by émigré authors, which is presented below.
As a result of Georgia’s occupation by Bolshevik Russia, part of the population was forced into exile, including the family of the prominent Georgian doctor and public figure Vakhtang Gambashidze (1872–1951). While Gambashidze has been widely studied, this work focuses on the women of his family–his wife Wanda Hope and daughters Medea, Georgetta, and Sunana – their experiences of homeland, emigration, and life abroad. Through their story, the study explores the socio-emotional condition of the first wave of Georgian émigrés in France, issues of identity, and sustained ties with Georgia, drawing on previously unpublished family archival materials.
The Original Source of Teimuraz Batonishvili’s The Destruction of Troada
The paper examines Teimuraz Batonishvili's poem The Destruction of Troada, the first Georgian poetic work on the Trojan War in relation to Guido de Columna’s The History of the Destruction of Troy for the first time, based on its Georgian translation (manuscript S:5. Georgian National Centre of Manuscripts). Columna’s literary work has been proposed to be the original source of this poem though without any comparative analysis ever held. The research made evident that Columna’s text appears to be the original source of Teimuraz Batonishvili’s poem following the original consistently, but with big cuts. One can find some innovations in Batonishvili’s poem as well.