European Ideals and National Identity in Georgian Emigrant Literature of the XX Century
European Ideals and National Identity in Georgian Emigrant Literature of the XX Century

Summary/Abstract: The political processes of the 20th century became a kind of test for Georgian writers, the passing of which was largely manifested by the writers’ physical presence-absence, the denial of their own beliefs. Immigrant literature has become a form of free expres-sion of dissident thoughts. The authors were forced to move to another language space for their spiritual and physical survival in order to at least somehow get closer to the national culture. However, new contradictions arose at the same time. Writers lived in a foreign country, in a society of a different mentality and worldview, for which the topic that was close to the Georgian way of life could possibly be completely alien and uninteresting. The works of Georgian emigrant authors could be incompatible or less compatible with foreign literary discourse.The goal of writers and poets of the early 20th century was to remove the shack-les of imperialism from Georgia and to become closer to Europe. The Soviet authori-ties launched a cruel and immoral campaign against the writer, caused by the ideolo-gy of that time. One of the outstanding representatives of this particular era was Grigol Robakidze. The present paper deals with the research and analysis of the movement that began at the beginning of the 20th century and was aimed at bringing Georgia closer to Europe; it also discusses the reasons that served the public to appeal to European ideals and how the struggle went on to establish their cultural values. Grigol Robaki-dze's German-language work is essentially a part of Georgian literature.The writer was delighted with the poetic greatness of the Georgian language and its capabilities. Robakidze's works clearly show his selfless love for the mother-land. He was in love with the Georgian language, the Georgian land, the Georgian character and, in general, with everything Georgian. It is easy to imagine that the stay in emigration even more strengthened the writer's patriotic feelings. The creative path of the emigrant writer was in expressing his own and national identity, on the one hand, and in adapting to the literary environment, the part of which the author should have become himself, on the other hand. Thus, he did not move away from his native roots and found his place in a foreign literary discourse.

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