Page 166 - Vinkler, Jonatan, Ana Beguš and Marcello Potocco. Eds. 2019. Ideology in the 20th Century: Studies of literary and social discourses and practices. Koper: University of Primorska Press
P. 166
Ideology in the 20th Century: studies of literary and social discourses and practices
The poem 1920, written a few days before Sovietization, might have proved
dangerous for the poet. Despite its intimate-lyrical character, the poem ev-
idently contains a negative characterization of the new, post-revolution-
ary time: we are dealing not with a time of renewal—the great revolution
that should have brought the desired freedom to the people, but a ‘horri-
ble time’—an ‘ignorant century’, when the ‘curse of the time’ on behalf of
social equality destroys people physically and spiritually (Doiashvili 2012,
110–111).
Galaktion Tabidze’s suicide divided not only the period, but also
the history of Georgian literature. Georgian poetry and literary taste of
the subsequent period, distinguished by large-scale thematic and stylis-
tic transformations, was built either in harmony with or in opposition
to Tabidze’s poetry. Exactly in this syncope, or gap in time, the outlines
166 of modern Georgian literature assumed shape. At the beginning of the
1960s, Georgian literature, having already passed through the stages of
acute opposition with the ideological regime, struggle, liquidation, and
renewal, was looking toward new horizons. Although the regime was still
strong, literature was ready itself for a reconstruction.
Every literary period is a result of a certain preliminary, often long,
cultural preparation. Hence, the history of contemporary Georgian liter-
ature should be counted from the end of the 1950s and the first half of the
1960s, the period when Georgian literature was largely affected by the-
matic and stylistic innovations of landmark importance. However, the
literature of the second half of the twentieth century, despite its different
format, is closely intertwined not only with the Georgian literature of the
first half of the same century, but also with the Georgian literary tradi-
tion of the previous periods. Georgian poets of the new wave were in close
contact with remarkable, still living and active Georgian poets of the old-
er generation—Giorgi Leonidze (1900–1966) and Simon Chiqovani
(1902–1966)—as well as with representatives of Georgian classical poet-
ry. I share the viewpoint according to which
literature of the twentieth century is a manifestation of a single ‘long line’
of heredity, where the traditions are traced back not only to the immedi-
ate predecessors, not only ‘beyond the generations’ (e.g., beyond the gener-
ation of ‘fathers’ to the generation of ‘grandfathers’), but often to the deep
historical layers of culture (this became a stimulus for discovery of inter-
textuality as a phenomenon) ... Heredity lines, vectors of artistic interrelation
not only extend and go to the depth of the centuries, to the origin of cul-
ture, but are also divided. Division and branches of culture and its roots are
The poem 1920, written a few days before Sovietization, might have proved
dangerous for the poet. Despite its intimate-lyrical character, the poem ev-
idently contains a negative characterization of the new, post-revolution-
ary time: we are dealing not with a time of renewal—the great revolution
that should have brought the desired freedom to the people, but a ‘horri-
ble time’—an ‘ignorant century’, when the ‘curse of the time’ on behalf of
social equality destroys people physically and spiritually (Doiashvili 2012,
110–111).
Galaktion Tabidze’s suicide divided not only the period, but also
the history of Georgian literature. Georgian poetry and literary taste of
the subsequent period, distinguished by large-scale thematic and stylis-
tic transformations, was built either in harmony with or in opposition
to Tabidze’s poetry. Exactly in this syncope, or gap in time, the outlines
166 of modern Georgian literature assumed shape. At the beginning of the
1960s, Georgian literature, having already passed through the stages of
acute opposition with the ideological regime, struggle, liquidation, and
renewal, was looking toward new horizons. Although the regime was still
strong, literature was ready itself for a reconstruction.
Every literary period is a result of a certain preliminary, often long,
cultural preparation. Hence, the history of contemporary Georgian liter-
ature should be counted from the end of the 1950s and the first half of the
1960s, the period when Georgian literature was largely affected by the-
matic and stylistic innovations of landmark importance. However, the
literature of the second half of the twentieth century, despite its different
format, is closely intertwined not only with the Georgian literature of the
first half of the same century, but also with the Georgian literary tradi-
tion of the previous periods. Georgian poets of the new wave were in close
contact with remarkable, still living and active Georgian poets of the old-
er generation—Giorgi Leonidze (1900–1966) and Simon Chiqovani
(1902–1966)—as well as with representatives of Georgian classical poet-
ry. I share the viewpoint according to which
literature of the twentieth century is a manifestation of a single ‘long line’
of heredity, where the traditions are traced back not only to the immedi-
ate predecessors, not only ‘beyond the generations’ (e.g., beyond the gener-
ation of ‘fathers’ to the generation of ‘grandfathers’), but often to the deep
historical layers of culture (this became a stimulus for discovery of inter-
textuality as a phenomenon) ... Heredity lines, vectors of artistic interrelation
not only extend and go to the depth of the centuries, to the origin of cul-
ture, but are also divided. Division and branches of culture and its roots are
