ილია ჭავჭავაძე – „განდეგილი“ (ეროვნული იდენტობის დესტრუქცია და კოლონიზაციის ტრავმული გამოცდილება – თვითიდენტიფიკაციის კრიზისი). Ilia Chavchavadze – THE HERMIT (Destruction of national identity and traumatic experience of colonization – a crisis of self-identification)
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Date
2021
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ივანე ჯავახიშვილის სახელობის თბილისის სახელმწიფო უნივერსიტეტის გამომცემლობა
Abstract
Named Critical Realism, the Georgian literature of the second
half of the 19th century laid the foundation for searching for national
identity and self-knowledge, the formation of concepts reflecting
understanding within the national chronotype of the anti-colonial
movement, and the formation of different value systems. The first of
the European model of worldview, Georgian critical religiosity, is
nourished by the standard features of our writing; as the ideologicalworldview
cornerstone of realists, writers is an artistic reflection of the historical purpose, cultural phenomenon, national values, and
civic responsibility. Targeted intellectual activity, political activity,
and mobilization of the society are the preconditions for awakening
the national self-consciousness, re-evaluating the value system, and
transforming the national paradigm. "Caring for the survival of the
nation and reviving the culture has been a cornerstone of the
philosophy of the Tergdaleans." [Jones 2007: 58-59] Literary scholars
have repeatedly stated that our cultural elite led the process of
creating the Georgian national idea. It was Ilia Chavchavadze who
created the narrative of the Georgian nation, the content of which
reflected our reality, everyday life, and living environment. At the
same time, in terms of form, it appeared in the form of a European
worldview. "He inspired the national spirit of the ethical body of
Georgian unity" [Chkhatrishvili, 11]. The writer believed that the idea
of progress merged with the model of European development. Civic
activism and the transformation of one's reality was a fundamental
principle for the poet, and the only sensible strategy was the way of
knowledge, science, production, and the unity of nations.
Georgian literature has always reflected epoch-making events,
needs, shortcomings, and strengths. Starting from 1801, after the
annexation by the Russian Empire, in the first decades of the nineteenth
century, the Georgian aristocracy was left without a
national-political function, as local Georgian education was neglectted
or inaccessible to a specific part of our society. Such political
processes created a crisis of self-identification in the Georgian colonized
culture, clearly reflected in the most visible literary-publicist
texts. The concern of self-determination in Georgian literature is
related to the existential issue, which implies the fear of national
existence and the impossibility of self-determination. This process
represents the destruction or negation of identity, the repression of
masculine characteristics. Orientation to national goals, development
of resistant discourse, and Georgian society's ambivalence are
distinguishing signs of our literature as colonial literature. Culturalpolitical nihilism, which denies any valuable meaning of semantic
and state management that defines illusory communication, words,
and concepts that have no real sense, places the context on which
physiological, social, and cultural-political trauma, traumatic memory,
is formed. He is not loyal to the king, land or faith, but to
culture" [Gellner 2003, 46]. In the Georgian reality, this context posed
the threat of colonization and the struggle for statehood. "The
ideology of nationalism requires immersion in culture, rediscovery of
history, the revival of the local language and development of
literature." [Smith, 2004: 28].
Ilia Chavchavadze believed that conscious patriotism was a
precondition for public welfare. The writer describes the existence of
a person, his purpose, the function of an artist, the relationship
between social ranks, political-social reality, psychological dilemmas,
morally degraded society, mentally weakened, regressive-minded,
civic self-conscious, and lacking in culture, the desperate passivity
and indifference of the nation and the realities of the crisis of
self-identification. Gia Murghulia singles out the main merits of the
writer and public figure as an attempt to base the Georgian nation
on the rational principles of thinking and living. The philologist
rightly notes that Ilia Chavchavadze repeated the work path of Grigol
Khandzteli with his creativity and work - he tried to understand the
importance of education, culture, and unified consciousness for the
Georgian nation. He taught our society complex thinking, "creating a
new cultural and educational field in Georgia" [Murghulia, 199]. We
have defined the issue, importance, and necessity of raising a "new
Georgian" - an educated, dignified, national-minded, progressiveminded,
strong-willed person. "Freedom, political autonomy, social
and civic synergy were the main ones for him" [Murghulia, 200].
In discussing "The Hermit," we remind of the contradictory and
negative evaluations caused by the poem's seemingly unusual story
and plot. What most critics have described as a weakness of the
work, as a humiliation of the author's name and talent, the history of literature has given a proper place and a correct assessment when
such material presents as a symbolic literary work Such as The
Cathedral of Our Lady of Paris by Victor Hugo, The Sin of Abbot
Moore by Emile Zola, The Temptation of Gustave Flaubert, The Poor
of Lev Tolstoy, and Yukio Mishima, The Love of the Holy Monk of the
Saga.
Many scholars have argued that the writer, by denouncing the
principle of asceticism, opposed Christianity. However, modern
literary critics naturally do not share this view, as one of the pillars
of the Creator's ethical belief was that It was not a task. Despite Ilia
Chavchavadze as St. Ilia the Righteous, it is necessary to understand
that the author distinguishes between secular and religious life, as
the individual's main goal is to work for society, the nation, gaining
knowledge, science, civic responsibility, and statehood. We must not
forget that nationalism is an ideology directed against colonial
oppression, violation of rights, and national oppression, the universal
principle of which is the nation's priority over religious, class,
and universal values. Thus, Ilia Chavchavadze considers Christianity a
synthesis of active civic action and moral activity. "The soul, like the
flesh, is national to all people. "Nationalism is the collective freedom
of the collective individual. As an individual cannot develop, he cannot
flourish if his personality and peculiarities pave wide, so the
nation will oppress if his nationality gives complete freedom."
["Autonomy and Nationality", Iakob Gogebashvili].
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ქართული რეალიზმი და პიროვნული იდენტობა, ილია ჭავჭავაძის შემოქმედება და ნაციონალური იდენტობის კრიზისი, მხატვრული ლიტერატურის ჰერმენევტიკული ანალიზი, მხატვრული ტექსტების რევიზიული წაკითხვა, Georgian Realism and Personal Identity, Ilia Chavchavadze Creativity and the Crisis of National Identity, Hermeneutic Analysis – Revision Reading of Fiction
Citation
ივანე ჯავახიშვილის სახელობის თბილისის სახელმწიფო უნივერსიტეტის ჰუმანიტარულ მეცნიერებათა ფაკულტეტის ახალი ქართული ლიტერატურის ისტორიის კათედრა, XIX საუკუნე − ეპოქათა მიჯნა, სამეცნიერო შრომათა ჟურნალი N 2, თბილისი, 2021, გვ. 109-124 / Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University Faculty of Humanities Department of History of New Georgian Literature, XIX CENTURY – AT THE CROSSROADS OF EPOCHS, JOURNAL OF SCIENTIFIC WORKS N 2, Tbilisi, 2021, pp.: 109-124