The Kartvelologist

The Kartvelologist” is a bilingual (Georgian and English) peer-reviewed, academic journal, covering all spheres of Kartvelological scholarship. Along with introducing scholarly novelties in Georgian Studies, it aims at popularization of essays of Georgian researchers on the international level and diffusion of foreign Kartvelological scholarship in Georgian scholarly circles.


“The Kartvelologist” issues both in printed and electronic form. In 1993-2009 it came out only in printed form (#1-15). The publisher is the “Centre for Kartvelian Studies” (TSU), financially supported by the “Fund of the Kartvelological School”. In 2011-2013 the journal is financed by Shota Rustaveli National Science Foundation.





Grigol Robakidze’s Works of in the German Language (Prometheus’s Offspring)

 

The society has been interested in Grigol Robakidze’s works written in German for a long time. Due to the fact that the writer’s new works were tracked down in various countries, new prospects are open  for the scholars and literary critics in studying his literary heritage.

Robakidze’s five articles – under the common title The Silhouette of the Caucasus - published in 1942 in different issues of The Brussels Magazine, are unknown for the Georgian readers.  The above articles are mentioned by the writer in his letter My Explanation addressed to the Georgian writers in 1947. As Robakidze notes he managed to avoid “political emphasis” in the fierce years of the World War II. 

The main topic in the Prometheus’s Offsprings fromThe Silhouette of the Caucasus („Das Geschlecht von Prometheus“, 26.08.1942) is a free human being and his / her activities. Robakidze describes there the stories from the history of Georgia, life and customs and rites of the freedom-loving nations living in the Caucasus to the citizens of Belgium occupied by Germany and the German-speaking readers. Robakidze deserves credits for reintroducing Prometheus’s country to Europe in 1930-40-es through his works.

Ambivalence of Robakidze’s Prometheus – fighting for freedom and blasphemer at the same time – can be relevant to the immigrant writer himself who was between two frontlines. He also belongs to those offsprings of Prometheus whom nobody can help. It’s due to this ambivalence that Robakidze’s works give rise to different viewpoints both in Georgian and German academic literature. And every finding offers the possibility to make new conclusions. 


keywords:Caucasus, Robakidze, Prometheus, freedom Category: SCHOLARLY STUDIES Authors: Nugesha Gagnidze


East Meets West along a Fault Line: Love in Shota Rustiveli’s „The Man in the Panther’s Skin“ and Chrétien de Troyes’ Arthurian Romances

 

Given the proximity in time of Chrétien de Troyes and Shota Rustaveli and some similarity in their writing, this paper examines the portrayal of love in Rustaveli’s The Man in the Panther’s Skin and the romances of Chrétien de Troyes. Close reading of the texts supports the position that for both poets, marriage, not adultery, was the proper fulfillment of love.  Looking more closely at the development of love within the text, however, differences emerge.  In Chrétien’s romances, the married couples strengthen their love by finding the proper balance between their private love and their public lives, and adulterous couples are viewed negatively. In Avtandil, Rustaveli shows us a hero who already thinks and acts rationally from the beginning and whose love is not questioned. He is able to maintain emotional control by self-correcting his moments of grief and despair when he is parted from Tinatin. His role in the poem is not merely to find Nestan, but to restore the nobility and virtue which is inherent in Tariel. Rustaveli also develops the friendship-love between male characters far more than Chrétien does in his romances. An analysis of the love between Avtandil and Tariel shows some similarities to the Neoplatonic concepts of friendship between noble men which developed in the Western Middle Ages.  There are striking similarities between the two poets, but the differences indicate that they developed independently of each other.


keywords:„The Man in the Panther’s Skin“, Rustaveli, Chrétien de Troyes, marriage, friendship, ennobling love Category: SCHOLARLY STUDIES Authors: Sally Newell


Bronze Age Krater form Atskuri

 

In 2007 archaeological excavations were carried out on the 1st century BC settlement and Middle Bronze Age burials of Atskuri archaeological site.

The moust important materials were found in the Bronz Age burial on the left bank of the river Mtkvari, to the east from classical and hellenistic period settlemet. I want to draw particular attention to Krater, because it does not have analogies in Caucasian archaeology.

According to the items of complex the Krater is dated by 17th – 16th centuries BC. If we analyze materials from burial from Atskuri and burial of same period from village Ota, it is clear that after “Brilliant Culture of Trialeti” there are few somewhat different cultural elements, which preserves old traditions, but also in this group of traditional items appears a new cultural elements as well, which characterize all this complex as new micro–culture with diverse and rich inventory.


keywords: Atskuri exacavtions, Middle Bronze Age, Krater, Samtskhe micro-culture Category: SCHOLARLY STUDIES Authors: Vakhtang Licheli


Surion-Vani Patron Goddess: “Anassa Souri”

 

The article discusses one of the arti-facts of Vani Nakalakari- an inscription found on the gate-wall of the town, which presents interesting material about Old Colkhi Society.

The ancient city Vani was known as the city of “Surion” Anassa Souriin ancient times [5, p. 223; 9, pp. 124-128]. A number of significant artifacts have been discovered about the city, among which the highest interest is evoked by a vertically scratched inscription on the gate wall of Vani city which reads as follows: Ar[aomai[w Anas]s[a I pray thee my Lord – the Goddess” [6, p. 52]. From the paleographical point of view, the inscription dates from the IV-III cc. BC and is considered to be the oldest of the ancient Greek lapidary inscriptions [4, p. 148]. The inscription is worth noting for a number of reasons. For instance, not only does it provide an insight into the religious beliefs of the citizens of the city Vani - Surion, but, also, about the general ideology of society in ancient Kolkheti.


keywords:Vani, Surion, Aphrodite, goddess, Anasa, Colchis Category: SCHOLARLY STUDIES Authors: Temur Todua


Love of The Man in the Panther Skin – a New Philosophical Concept

 

The concept of love in the MPS is related to the Late Middle Ages stage of the Christian civilization.  It is Renaissant by nature; it is based on the Rustavelian model of interpretation of Christian love for the neighbor and represents the original philosophical conceptualization and artistic representation of the world outlook of the transitional  epoch – from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance thinking.


keywords:The Man in the Panther Skin, love, neighbor, Middle Ages, Renaissance Category: SCHOLARLY STUDIES Authors: ELGUJA KHINTIBIDZE


Stages of Introducing and Establishing Sonnets into Georgia

This articledeals with the characterisation and complexity of the stages accompanying the process of establishment of the genre of the sonnet in Georgia.

Having been isolated from the European cultural space, it took Georgia almost the whole of the XIX century to cannonise the parameters of this stable verse form (strophic, rhythmic and metrics), although the first, original sonnet was published in Georgian in 1859, in the journal “Tsiskari”.

In the first decade of the XX century the intellectual circles of Georgia and the order of Tsistperkantselebi (Blue Horns) considered the sonnet to be a universal symbol and hence its immense popularity in the period. In the conditions of the totalitarian regime the sonnet was banned and was only revived after the rehabilitation of   Tsisperkanstelebi

In the 80s of the 20th century, on the other hand, enhancement of the issues connected with the history and theory of the sonnet and the revival of the national movement brought yet unseen popularity to this European stable verse form.


keywords:sonnet, stable verse form, symbol Category: SCHOLARLY STUDIES Authors: Tamar Barbakadze