Epigraph as the Code (Galaktioni’s “Gold in Adjara Heaven”)

Abstract

Galaktion Tabidze has opposed to the socialist realism with his own “defense” politics and masked the main ideas by applying numerous poetic techniques: title, figurative characters, manipulations with dates, opposition rhetoric etc. The poet tricked the party dictate, by providing epigraphs (stances from the “Knight in the Panther’s Skin”) hinting the idea of all (75) his verses in the book “Gold in Adjara Heaven”. These epigraphs declare the main ideas of the verses and the book.

The book was published in Batumi, in 1944. Afterwards, fearing the totalitarian regime, Galaktioni removed the epigraphs, still achieving the goal, with respect of poetics and conjuncture!