French Diary on Caucasus

Abstract

The author's English summary from the article:

Key words: “Georgian-French Diary”, Review.

Main issue of “Georgian-French Diary” is Georgian-French literary and cultural relationships. Conditionally the book is divided into three parts. First part, dedicated to stating of the issue consists of two articles: the first is “Reflection of French Culture and Literature in Georgian Cultural Space of the Period from 17th to early 20th century” (Irma Ratiani, RusudanTurnava, Gaga Lomidze, AlexanderStroev). It is the overview of Geor- gian-French relationships and shows different stages of their development and deepening. Title of the second article is “Caucasus in the Memories and Pictures of the French Art- ists” (RusudanTurnava, Nino Gagoshashvili).

It tells about travel of French artists Henry Pharamond Blanchard, Emile Francois Dessain, Jan-Pierre Moynet in Georgia. Further there is expanded overview of Moynet’s book. He travelled in Georgia together with Al- exandre Dumas and similar to Dumas, he described his impressions as well. They arrived to Georgia from Russia and their records contain data not only about Georgia but about North Caucasus as well. We should particularly admit Moynet’s description of Tbilisi with its narrow streets, shops and bathes. It should be noted that in the records describing journeys of the listed French artists Georgia is not presented as an exotic land, rather, its description is unbiased, as far as possible, there are mentioned the problems of the country of that period, as this could be seen by the travelers.

Here ends the overviewing part of the “French Diary of Caucasus”, preparing the readers for proceeding to the second and third parts, containing the original texts. In par- ticular, chapte two contains memories of the above mentioned artists Jan-Pierre Moynet and A.P. Blanchard: “Volga and Caucasus together with Alexandre Dumas” (translated by TatiaOboladze) and “Travel from Tiflis to Stavropol through Dariali Gorge 1858” (trans- lated by Nino Gagoshashvili). It should be noted that this and other similar texts are of no less significance now than at a time of their writing as it is interesting what is the place of Caucasus, particularly Georgia, on the mental map of the European intellectual and artist.

The last, third part of the book, titled “Caucasus in French Memories and Letters” contains personal letters written in French belonging to Georgian aristocracy, about differ- ent issues and for different intentions. It should be noted that their seeking in the archives and their decoding was provided within the scopes of the mentioned project. “French Diary of Caucasus” is important and useful not only for the researchers interested in Georgian culture, but for the students and wide audience as well.

Published in the journal Sjani, vol. 20/1 (2019), pp. 292–295. Open the paper