Abstract:
Chola Lomtatidze’s prose should be considered an important
event in Georgian literature at the dawn of the twentieth century.
Although there was no shortage of interest in his work after the writer’s
death, it should be noted with regret that his works received
insufficient critical acclaim during his lifetime. The writer’s political
activism might have been one of the reasons. It is clear that he was
recognized as an accountable socio-political figure, one of the leaders
of the Social-Democratic movement and a member of the Russian
Duma, which, at the same time, made it difficult for his contemporaries
to perceive him as a serious literary author. However, it can
be said that Chola’s death was immediately followed by his appreciation
as a writer: As early as November 15, 1915, in the newspaper
“Tavisuphali Azri” (“Free Opinion) Noe Jordania, published a farewell
letter dedicated to Chola under a pseudonym. In the letter he speaks
extensively and convincingly about Chola’s literary talent, referring
him as the only writer of the “Knut Gamsun School” in Georgia. Since
then, interest in Chola’s literary heritage has grown and the process
continues. The story “In Front of the Gallows” has a special place in Chola
Lomtatidze’s work. It can be said that this work, written in 1907, is
distinguished not only in the literary heritage of Chola but also in the
Georgian literary process at the beginning of the twentieth century.
It should be noted that, like many Marxist writers, Chola, on the one
hand, uses his work for open political propaganda . “In Front of the
Gallows” is no exception in this regard, but, on the contrary, “In Front
of the Gallows” is one of the most politically accentuated works by
Chola preaching the political ideology of the author and the narrator
in almost every sentence. Often the focus is on the proletariat, the
business of the proletariat not to get forgotten by the proletariat,
etc.As regards the sort of Chola’ alter ego – the narrator Jeiran Vardosanidzes
speech text, which he intends to utter in court, it clearly
and, in my opinion, purposefully reads as Marxist-revolutionary
views and ideological provisions.
However, “In Front of the Gallows” is first and foremost an impressive
literary text, not a naked partian-publicist work. Problems
of an existential nature are acutely posed in the work (even the title
of the work and the epigraph are much worthy in this regard), there
is a reference to the aesthetics of silence, etc. In Chola Lomtatidze’s
story “In Front of the Gallows,” the manifestation of the “stream of
consciousness” phenomenon deserves special attention. It is noteworthy
that this literary phenomenon with Chola was revealed when
it was an apparent novelty even for European writing. Based on the
above, this work should be given profound importance to the history
of Georgian literature. I think there is every reason to consider the
story “In Front of the Gallows” as one of the first full-fl edged modernist
works in Georgian prose.
