THE RISK OF AN UNPOPULAR THEME AND THE OPPOSITE PERSPECTIVE IN A LITERARY TEXT

Abstract

Writing has never been an easy task, and this requires no proof. However, a writer often faces not only purely professional challenges but must also navigate between the necessary and the possible. The essence and causes of such dilemmas change with time and epoch, as every era brings its own specific challenges that demand not avoidance but direct confrontation from the writer. This very principle underlies our greatest literary treasure, The Knight in the Panther’s Skin, where the genius Rustaveli depicted two alternative realities of a single epoch and nation—transforming what had to be said into what could be said, pushing the boundaries of the impossible. The same principle guides Ilia Chavchavadze’s Is He a Man?, in which the author was fully aware of the risk his story entailed, since people seldom enjoy facing their own flaws. Yet, the “mirror” was necessary for society, and Ilia, of all people, could not deprive his compatriots of this vital means of self-reflection. The same logic applies to Mikheil Javakhishvili’s Jaqo’s Guests and, more broadly, to much of Georgian literature produced during the Soviet period, where the problem of national identity had to be expressed in a way that was both  intelligible to the reader and imperceptible to censorship.

For us, as researchers interested in the study of contemporary literary processes, it is particularly intriguing to examine which issues and from what perspectives are being addressed today in modern Georgian literature—especially those that are thematically unpopular or, so to speak, somewhat controversial. According to our observations, among several such issues, one of the most striking and rare is the critical reflection of national significance found in literary works dealing with the theme of war. However, by “criticism,” we do not mean solely the depiction of high-ranking figures or political processes. Rather, our focus lies on ordinary individuals—society as a co-participant in collective mistakes. This, it seems, is a far more sensitive subject, perhaps because the reader inevitably recognizes themselves within it and is troubled by the pang of shared guilt. Therefore, this is the perspective and the interpretative angle that demands reflection without exception; for even if the account of justice favors us only one time out of a thousand, that one instance must not be ignored—if, indeed, we wish literature to reach and influence the human being. Otherwise, the writer, as a kind of moral healer, leaves the reader half-cured.

Keywords: War, literature, "Shadow Theater", Giorgi Sosiashvili.