THE INTERTEXTUAL TRANSFORMATION OF THE MEDEA MYTH AND SOVIET IDEOLOGICAL CRITIQUE: A CASE STUDY OF GIVI MARGVELASHVILI’S MEDEA OF COLCHIS IN THE KOLKHOZ

Abstract

This paper presents a comprehensive literary and critical analysis of the seminal novel Medea of Colchis in the Kolkhoz by the German-language Georgian writer Givi Margvelashvili. The primary objective of the research is to identify the postmodernist and post-structuralist paradigms within the work, with a central focus on the phenomena of intertextuality and metafictional narrative. The article provides a detailed representation of the author's strategy: a radical reinterpretation of the ancient myth of Medea and its adaptation within the absurd context of the Soviet totalitarian system.

The study analyzes Margvelashvili’s use of irony, grotesque, and parody as potent instruments for the deconstruction of Soviet ideological mechanisms and pseudo-pathos. A key aspect of the research involves examining the intertextual role of Christa Wolf's Medea, which is viewed as a successful attempt at the character's ethical rehabilitation and the rewriting of her centuries-old fatal mythological destiny.

Through the analysis of the existential symbolism of Merab Berdzanishvili’s sculpture and the simulated nature of the "Kolkhoz," the paper illuminates Margvelashvili’s "ontotextual" world. In this space, the literary character emerges as an autonomous subject, struggling not only against mythological predestination but also against the "frozen" identity imposed by the totalitarian system. The paper concludes that Margvelashvili’s metafictional narrative serves as a pathway for reimagining the past and achieving personal and national liberation from ideological constraints.

Keywords: Givi Margvelashvili, Medea of Colchis in the Kolkhoz, Postmodernism, Intertextuality, Metafiction, Myth of Medea, Soviet Totalitarianism, Christa Wolf, Ethical Rehabilitation, Ontotextuality.