Irma Ratiani

Literary Model of Realism in Georgian Literature

Baratashvili’s idea acquires additional meaning from the 1860s when the real goal of the political course and social strategies of new colonists become obvious - to transform into a peripheral zone of socio-political and cultural developments (which corresponds to the classical interpretation of the concept of “colony”). The reaction of the Georgian public to Russian colonialism also changes and the ambivalent status of the period is replaced by radical opposition: the religious strategy of anti-colonial movement, developed historically, was replaced by the national strategy. It is not accidental that , leader of Georgian realism, clung to the figure of - he was follower of Baratashvili with respect to the Russian colonial policy, and he was not alone in this: reconstruction of the national values underlie the work of other Georgian realist writers and publicists as well1. The above-mentioned particular tendency does not rule out the close relation of Georgian realism with the Western model of realism. In its turn, the Western model of realism represented reaction to subjectivism characteristic of Romanticism: “Romanticism retained certain illusions and introduced the sense of imperfection of new life. “Critical realism” was a sober analysis of the “lost illusions”, which was aware that the “divine comedy” of the world was gradually acquiring the everyday characteristics and was evolving into “human comedy” (Borev 2001: 390). This was the world of the “dead souls”, “walking dead”, “humiliated and insulted”, “poor people”, as well as the world of the Goriots, Chichikovs, Oblomovs, narrated in the slow, careful and attentive manner. Writers were exploring the problem – “Human being and the world”, which from the present-day viewpoint can be renamed as “me and the world” and can be defined as the most critical position in the history of the world literature2. The leading literary genres of realism - novel, short story, poem, etc. – make successful use of satire and humor, grotesque and irony in order to express better the position of the literature: according to realism, the ideal can be discovered only by means of criticizing and rejecting the existing! Hence, writers are desperately trying to reach the ideal, to this end, they have to enter life to a greater extent, where people are constantly struggling with the history. After all, the cultural mission of realism is the search for man’s historical purpose and humanity (Borev 2001: 388)! Realism works in a politically intensive, socially differentiated and culturally disintegrated period, which becomes increasingly more engaged in scientific and technical progress. A clash of values of all types and complexity are markers of realism. The field of writers’ sight incudes life

1 The present work does not deal with the discussion of the 19th-c. Georgian social and political journalism, but only literary processes. 2 Naturally it should be borne in mind that Gargantua and Pantagruel by François Rabelais is regarded as the first text written in the realistic manner. It is very early to speak about the literary trend of realism in the period of Rabelais – it becomes established only in the 19th c., but realism, as a method, found full reflection in the work by this great early Renaissance author. 1 with all its details and problems; realists look at life with their eyes wide open, at every step they feel regret caused by unachieved justice, insurmountable mercantilism, and unheard pain. Georgian realists, “Tergdaleulebi”3, are well aware of the literary canon of world realism (both by means of original and translated texts) and the texts of its main representatives - Gogol, Zola, Balzac, Dickens, Nekrasov, Tolstoy, Turgenev, Dostoevsky and others; they adapt the basic realistic themes, such as complicated relations between the person and the society, details of everyday social life, psychological dilemmas, etc. The present, rejected and leveled by Romantics, is gradually regaining positions, the poet/writer descends headlong to the “sinful earth” and assumes reality as a shield. This fundamental characteristic of realism, supported by the common aesthetic and poetical principles, appears as the reason of interaction of realistic schools, including Georgian. Realist writers - Georgian, French, British, Russian, German, etc. - often deal with the same concepts, as if in collusion they disrupt the genre and narrative strategies established by Romanticists. Realistic novel and short story occupy the literary domain, whereas of the poetic genres poem is preferred. The literary process becomes extremely transparent and, in addition, controllable: the author’s figure moves out of the romantic shroud into the text – the more the role of the writer’s biography is reduced in his work, the more the role of his work increases in his biography. An author of the realism period is no longer a person emotionally burning outside/inside the text, but is a significant part of the text proper, who masterfully uses literature as a platform for voicing urgent social, national, ethnic and worldview problems: involvement of external factors in the literary process lends them special purposefulness: authors listen carefully to the voices of the epoch (Bakhtin), Honoré de Balzac, Charles Dickens, Leo Tolstoy, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Ilia Chavchavadze, , Aleksandre Qazbegi, Vazha-Pshavela – are the authors listening to their period: their works can be referred to by the metaphor Intelligent Sensitivity, rather than Sensitive Intelligence. Realists do not confine to their own opinion, but are interested in the views of others concerning their opinion: reader is no longer an external listener but an intellectual partner in the enormous realistic dialogue, called Life. Literature enters the phase of oratorical pragmatics. Romantic introversion is gradually transformed into realistic extraversion, whereas politicization and socialization of literature reveals national differences to a greater extent: Georgian realism is loaded with “Georgian problems”, which from the second half of the 19th c. are inevitably linked with the search for the national identity as a purpose. Struggle for the political independence of the country is the most crucial local problem which is tackled with firm insistence by Georgian literature of the period of classical realism andwhich from this standpoint creates a quite specific wing of the world realism. “For critical realism, formed In West European countries (Dickens, , Balzac, Flaubert), the major problem is the impossibility to achieve human happiness and independence in the society, based on the primacy of money. In such a society achievement of happiness is linked with gaining the wealth, which is impossible, or is spiritually destroying for a noble person of high moral principles and ideals…The main task of a person is to find an alternative: he should seek happiness beyond wealth or should become rich in an honest way. The utopianism of such an alternative proper becomes an instrument of sharp criticism of bourgeois society, which puts a person in such an unstable and unpromising condition” (Borev 2001: 399). Unlike the Western wing of realism, Russian critical realism (Gogol, Turgenev, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Chekhov) works on the problem of conflict between person and the world: within this concept the controversies between the person and the

3 Almost all distinguished representatives of this group received education at St.-Petersburg University, which, from the purely geographical viewpoint implied crossing River Terek on the Military Road, leading from Georgia to the North (Tergdaleuli – literally, one who drank water of Terek (Tergi - in Georgian). 2 world are manifested fully, however, the way to eradicate evil is not violence, which is historically dangerous and unjustifiable, but an attempt to ennoble it: Russian realism does not see any way other than self-perfection of a person and reacting to evil with forgiveness. Georgian realism adopts freely both Western and Russian experience (Solomon Isakich Mejghanuashvili by L. Ardaziani, The Family Settlement by G. Eristavi, On the Gallows by I. Chavchavadze), but identifies as its main message another problem: varied possibilities of realistic manner of reflection in settlement of the issue of the national identity! The idea of national independence is the main idea of Georgian critical realism which covers and overshadows the acute social-political problems. Due to the activation of the idea of national independence Georgian critical realism occupies a special place in the common European area of realistic literature. In this regard, the texts such as Letters of a Traveller by Ilia Chavchavadze, Tornike Eristavi by Akaki Tsereteli, Elguja by Aleksandre Qazbegi, etc. acquire landmark importance. It is noteworthy that the idea of national independence in the depth of Georgian critical realism is directly linked with the revival of the historical value of the concept Caucasian, which, as noted above, underwent considerable devaluation in the ambivalent period of Romanticism. If Georgia separates itself from the other Caucasian regions, it will find itself in isolation, face-to-face with the “Russian bear” which especially intensifies its imperialistic plans in Georgia and the from the 1860s. Against this background, the poem Shamil’s Dream (1859) by Akaki Tsereteli sounds like an address and position: it is not accidental that the poet throws down this poem as the gauntlet to Georgian Romantic poet and general of the Russian army , thereby stressing the position of the “sons” (new generation), different from that of the “fathers” (old generation) towards the Caucasian problem. Al. Qazbegi deliberately moves the literary interpretation of the problem to the anti-Russian plane: in his texts tragic fear is clearly observable of the nation, which with its “foreign” language, morality and customs is intruding into the territory of Georgia and the Caucasus in general; characters that are linked with the Russian rule are interpreted in the negative context, or vice versa, if a character is negative, he is necessarily related to the Russian context, but on the other hand, the peoples of the Caucasian mountain regions are mostly associated with heroism, devotion, nobleness and love. The same tendency is observable in A. Tsereteli’s poem The Tutor, in which are both positive and negative characters, whereas their wise educator is Kabardian.4 Vazha-Pshavela’s characters Mutsali and Joqola and the attitude of the Georgian mountain dwellers towards them should also be borne in mind. Ethical and social pro et contra which Vazha-Pshavela uses as the foundation of the scale of values of his characters go beyond the narrow separatism standard towards the profound layers of humanism. “The Caucasian problem”, so urgent for Georgian realists wil be crowned with artistic virtuosity by Iakob Gogebashvili in his work What did Iavnana Do?, in which the ethnic opposition between the and the Lezghins, aggravated against the background of the tragic fate of a Georgian family, at the end of the story grows into the common harmony and idyll. Thus, the question posed within Romanticism at the beginning of the 19th c.: “Why should we stand together with the Caucasian peoples, when we do not have the religious unity?” at the end of the 19th c. within the frame of critical realism was transformed into the question: “Why should we be in discord when we have a common political enemy?” It should be admitted that another powerful tendency characteristic of Georgian critical realism – accentuation of social problems – also serves successful realization of the idea of national identity. From this viewpoint, the image of Luarsab Tatkaridze, created by Ilia Chavchavadze,

4 Noteworthy enough, the realist author, who traditionally appears as a strict regulator of ethical and moral norms in the text, does not accentuate ethnic differences anywhere. 3 proved to be of landmark importance: the writer created a character-type - not malicious, but idle, lazy and inert person, who is dangerous not only because he is socially outdated and regressive, but also because that if he becomes stronger, Georgia will find increasingly difficult to attain the cherished goal - independence: the path to independence goes through principal struggle of which Tatkaridze and persons like him are not capable. The social problems do not remain on the social level, but are also related to the idea of national identity as the main message of Georgian critical realism. The national idea remains as the central idea for a new, comparatively leftist group of writers as well, known as Georgian Narodniks. Despite the similarity of its title with the analogous literary school in Russia, according to its goals and purposes the Georgian movement was to a greater extent Europeist, rather than pro-Russian.5A great part of Georgian Narodniks regarded approximation with European science and culture as the prerequisite for the correct development of the country. For them the national feeling was valuable to the extent as it served the improvement of the life conditions of the people. Narodniks boldly introduced into Georgian literature gender problems. At the end of the 19th c., such wide-range and varied Georgian realism moved into the phase of Late Realism and thereby too also showed “solidarity” with European literary processes: Georgian literature successfully adopted the aesthetics of Late Realism, which was to a certain extent different from the main tendencies of critical realism. Realist writers, who moved from the 1880s into the sensitivity of Late Realism (Dostoevsky, Chekhov, Guy de Maupassant), realized fully the danger caused by the unprecedentedly activated political utopias and scientific-technical progress to the system of spiritual values developed and established over centuries. Romanticists (Frankenstein by ) and representatives of the new wave of philosophy sounded the alarm: “The problem of primary importance was not only the atmosphere of violence and terror, reigning as a result of modern achievements, but also the dangerous tendency of loss of individuality within the “collective” and “common”. The philosophy of Schopenhauer, Kierkegaard and Nietzsche reflected the in-depth projection of this danger facing the humanity. In their teachings unanimous aggression was expressed towards positivism and “accountant-bookkeeping” technical way of thinking, and the acute problem of the loss of free human activity, creative will and individual thought was posed… Pessimistic mood and deep skepticism to the new reality were formed within the new philosophical thought. The objective of the leaders of the “life philosophy” was to replace the idea of outer determination of life with the idea of self-determination, i.e. to transform the relation “Me and the World” - traditional and rational outer view into the position of the inner view, based on the primacy of the Sensitive and Perceptible. This new projection was able bring to the foreground the individual aspects of “self”, to establish the condition under which man was no longer satisfied with “reproduction” of the already existing, stable world per se and was concentrated on the realization of its own individual possibilities and perspectives… The philosophy of Schopenhauer, Kierkegaard and Nietzsche proved to be in total antagonism with the socialist and democratic teachings developed in the 19th c., as well as with predominant scientific progress and common-revolutionary atmosphere. Their thought reflected not only the crisis of the period, but also the tragedy of man captured within the boundaries of the period of a crisis” (Ratiani 2010: 36-40). In the conditions of alternation of teachings by social-utopists, the theory of Shared Property by Marx and Engels, the Evolution Theory by Charles Darwin, great achievements in chemistry and biological experiments, people began to doubt (Remi de Gurmon) – they began to doubt their origin

5 The present author intends to devote a special study to this issue. 4 and transience, God and universe. The ideal world was destroyed, - Friedrich Nietzsche declared, - “The humanity lost its support. Man remains without benchmarks, he is left on his own. Man does not know why he lives, where he is going, he does not know how to justify his activity and thought, he is seized with the feeling of loneliness, lack of any prospect, hopelessness” (Buachidze 1970: 26). Ideal values are depreciated, “God is dead, the values justified with the existence of God, to which man agreed so far, lose their value. This is a sign that “the most horrible of all guests – nihilism” is at the door (Buachidze 1970: 26). Nietzsche’s phrase “God is dead” expressed not so much the mood of an inveterate atheist, as the deep personal tragedy of the philosopher, “grown from the inner logic of the spiritual life of European humanity” (Buachidze 1986: 76 ). European society was facing an obvious danger of leveling the individual phenomenon. As a result, decadence spread intensively throughout , whereas critical realism underwent considerable transformation and moved to the phase of Late Realism. The writers of the Late Realism period, as it were, felt that time had changed the “chemical composition” of the human being! The perspective of the view from outside, developed over the centuries in literature – “human being and the world”, i.e. “me and the world” – was replaced by a totally different perspective of viewfrom inside: “human being in the world and the world in human being”, i.e. “me in the world and the world in me”. This perspective of vision, in combination with the decadence conception, was a direct way to Modernism6. Fyodor Dostoevsky made a special contribution to this complex system of transformation of literary vision and principles, who opposed resolutely the danger of the loss of individuality. The prospect of development of rationalized society was close for the author to a nightmare come true. Rationalization of the society was the concept relevant to Dostoevsky’s “unlimited despotism”, a synonym of freedom, for ever lost within the layers of the Scientific, Logical and Common. “Dostoevsky was endowed with a talent of genius to listen to the dialogue of his epoch, - noted Mikhail Bakhtin, - more precisely, to listen to his epoch as a tremendous dialogue, to grasp in it not only the sound of individual voices, but, above all, dialogue relations between the voices, dialogue interaction” (Bakhtin 1972: 150). These independent, unmerged, and hence unintegratable voices are characterized by overlapping and none of them taken separately expresses the highest and ultimate truth: truth as a conception of the artistic text is only a result of all positions of these voices as a polyphonic harmony. Dostoevsky’s main discovery was human being, and the profound changes in his spirit and mind were recorded by the author with amazing variety. In this regard, in Georgian literature the role of Vazha-Pshavela is tremendous. Vazha- Pshavela’s literary heritage with its themes and objectives is valuable Georgian reflection of the period of European Late Realism. The writer’s work is based on the progressive philosophical and literary principles (gaining an insight into the inner spiritual and psychological layers of human being, thinking about the complex interdependence of the man and the world) as well as Georgian mythological and folklore traditions: it fully reflects the influence of mythological archetypes on literature and demonstrates the function of not only artistic expressive means of orally transmitted folklore, but also that of the reflection of everyday culture and worldview beliefs in artistic texts7. His central texts – Aluda Ketelauri, Host and Guest, Gogotur and Apshina, The Snake-eater, etc. – of course have different plots, but they are united by a common principle: establishment of person and personal dignity! Vazha-Pshavela’s attention is focused on human being, subject, regardless of his religious belief and social position, who exists in the conditions of a certain society i.e. objective

6 This issue will be discussed further below. 7In Vazha-Pshavela’s work the ancient archetypal layers of Georgian culture are reflected. 5 environment, and is trying to get established in it as an individual person. They are not one of many, but one in many, whereas the spiritual projection is identified as the only projection of personal freedom. The merit of Vazha-Pshavela, in his own words, is useful to mankind to the same extent as it is useful and reasonable for his homeland (Cosmopolitism and Patriotism). Exactly with this pathos, Georgian literature enters the 20th c. and embarks naturally on the common European path of modernist searches8.…

Bibliography:

Borev 2001: Borev, Y. Critical Realism of the . In the book: Theory of Literature, vol. IV. Literary Process. Moscow: ИМЛИРАН, «Nasledie», 2001 (in Russian) Buachide 1970: Buachidze, T. Friedrich Nietzsche. In the book: 20th-century Bourgeois Philosophy. : Ganatleba, 1970 (in Georgian) Kumar 1991: Kumar K. Utopia and Anti-utopia in Modern Times. T.J. Press Ltd, Padstow: 1991. Ratiani 2010: Ratiani, I. Text and Chronotope. Tbilisi: Tbilisi University Publishing House, 2010 (in Georgian)

8 The work of Vazha-Pshavela’s proves to be the centre of gravity on which the inner relation of the 20th-c. Georgian literary processes – bold modernist tendencies and experiments – with Georgian classical literature was based. 6