Abstract:
The problem of verismo appears in the prose works created at
the end of the XIX century. Verismo is characterized by two directions.
Human misery and difficult social conditions are reflected in
one cycle of short stories, while the writings of the other group of
writers show an attempt to reflect the inner world of a human. If the first depicts rural life, the second group of writers depicts urban life
and creates the faces of intellectuals.
“Naturalist elements are presented in a sufficient dose in the
works of the first group of writers. This branch of the Georgian writers
of the 90s is closer to the Italian variety of naturalism, which is
known as Verismo” (Andronikashvili, 1984:209). Egnate Ninoshvili is
the most visible representative of this direction.
The process of deglorification of the characters is typical for
such compositions. The characters of Egnate Ninoshvili feel their
feebleness in the universe, they are drained of high ideals and their
survival instinct drives them. We find such faces of characters in all
creative works of the writer.
Italy is the birthplace of verismo and its founder father is
Giovanni Verga. Representatives of Italian Verismo are also Capuana
and Pirandello, however, Luigi Pirandello is freed from the influence
of Verismo in the second stage of his creative works.
It is noteworthy that in the early nineteenth century, Romanticism
introduced the problem of the “extra man” into literature. This
is a person isolated from society, locked in himself. The question of
the relation between the ideal and the reality creates a contradiction
in its existence. This is not the face of a human in public relations.
Realists portrayed their characters in real public relations, in
specific social, historical, and cultural contexts. In real human relationships,
their face and character are formed. At the same time,
it raises the issue of human alienation. “The authors of the works
ask the question, what should be the relationship between the individual
and the society, and the society must answer this question”
(Vardoshvili, 2018:94).
The characters, depicted in the social novel characteristic for
critical realism, are powerful artistic figures fighting against vices in
the public relations. At the same time, the realists oppose decadent
literature. Thus, the “extra man” at the beginning of the century appears to
be a “little man” at the end of the century. The problem of the “little
man” is related to the issue of verismo in the world literature.
