The Dramatic Images Detected in Georgian Kaleidoscope (“Georgian Kaleidoscope” by Zaza Phiralishvili)

Abstract

The author's English summary from the article:

Key words: Zaza Phiralishvili, “Georgian Kaleidoscope”, Georgian essay. “Georgian Kaleidoscope” by Zaza Phiralishvili with its historical-literary retrospectives is one of the most serious texts in Georgian essay of the recent period.

I will refer to two contents in order to help the reader get some idea about the architectonics of the book: the preface; XVI-XVIII centuries and the fate of the Georgian spirituality; Sulkhan-Saba Orbeliani and Georgian cosmos; Ilia Chavchavadze _ Historical context and an individual; several fragments about Vazha-Pshavela; waking up in a dream (the assay about Otar Chiladze). The author of “Georgian Kaleidoscope” believes to feel profoundly the aspiration of XVI-XVIII centuries is of a central importance to us as “dead metaphors” born right that time make our national body as heavy as a stone and will definitely make it sink unless the will revealed in minor individuals make them get rid of old bodies turned into chimeras as well as start seeking for new forms and images to reveal their own cultural and spiritual potentials.

The author’s retrospective on a three-century old Georgian history from the ontological viewpoint seems hopeless at first glance. However, there is a way-out for the author. And this is “being extremely alert spiritually”, which was characteristic of Sulkhan- Saba Orbeliani and Ilia Chavchavadze, Vazha-Pshavela and and Otar Chiladze, whose novel “Godori” in the XXI century served as a moral guide-book to the society “both big and small accusatory” being in the moral blind alley.

Published in the journal Sjani, vol. 16 (2015), pp. 286–290. Open the paper