„Illness of the Poor“, Georgian Writers and Georgian Literature

Abstract

Among the disasters that befell Georgia were dangerous and incurable infectious diseases (plague, cholera, tuberculosis...) which claimed the lives of some of its best sons and daughters. Sulkhan-Saba Orbeliani found a Georgian equivalent and defined tuberculosis as the disease of the thin, the fleshless. The list of Georgian writers who lost their lives due to this disease is quite long: Solomon Dodashvili, Archil Jorjadze, Daniel Chonkadze, Mamia Gurieli, Iakob Gogebashvili, Egnate Ninoshvili, Chola Lomtatidze, Sergey Meskhi, Sandro Tsirekidze, Shalva Karmeli, Lili Meunargia, Lado Asatiani.

The paper is dedicated to Georgian writers who contracted tuberculosis and died and the ways of self-reflection of the disease in their writings.