National Nihilism and Identity Crisis in Soviet and post-Soviet Georgian Literature

Abstract

Mzia Jamagidze National Nihilism and Identity Crisis in Soviet and post-Soviet Georgian Literature The dissertation studies the origins of national nihilism and identity crisis as represented in the Soviet and post-Soviet Georgian literature. Based on post-colonial theory, the present research finds trauma of colonization/Sovietization to be the reason behind the national nihilist attitudes and the crisis manifestations displayed in Georgian literature. The research shows how trauma, caused by loss of political independence, has been reflected by the national consciousness of the colonized society in terms of political, social and cultural trauma symptoms.

The analysis of the fiction and public essays, given in the dissertation, shows how colonization and imperial politics has led to dependency/inferiority complex in the national consciousness of the colonized society. In the literary texts, it has been represented in terms of de-masculinization, negation or hyperbolization and stereotyping of national self-acceptance. The dissertation also explores the strategies applied by the national literature at post-Soviet/post-colonial stage to separate itself from the colonizing cultural centre and re-construct its identity in the global and local contexts.

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