Abstract:
Almost all parts of Georgian society view Ilia Chavchavadze
(1837-1907) as a national figure. There is a lot of discussion regarding
his legacy in both intellectual and popular circles. The
groups, for whom Ilia is a cult figure, have completely different
views on such important issues for the state of Georgia like the
forms of nation building, models and directions of community
development, foreign policy and others. Chavchavadze's image
is frequently used to support different discourses on national
identity. For some, Ilia represents traditional, conservative values;
for others, he is the primary representation of Georgia's European
identity. There are also those, for whom he is the architect
of the Georgian nation's secularism, and those, for whom he
is Saint Ilia the Righteous, who has been canonized by the
Orthodox Church.
The paper intends to examine Ilia Chavchavadze as a national
hero, who is simultaneously the unquestionable leader of
the pantheon of Georgian heroes with a widely accepted positive
image and one of the most malleable names in Georgian history.
Political or public movements, and the leaders of those
movements, find "owning“ Ilia Chavchavadze as a hero, positioning
themselves as those who champion his ideas, and speaking
on behalf of Ilia to be particularly alluring. The figure of Ilia Chavchavadze is an "empty signifier," to use Ernesto Laclau's
term, into which everyone inserts his or her desired content. The
research topic is relevant because different perspectives and
conflicting discourses on Ilia Chavchavadze have a big impact
on contradictory political and social processes. Despite the
abundance of materials related to Ilia Chavchavadze already in
existence, hardly any works can be found in which the issue is
investigated from a similar perspective.
