EUROPEAN LITERARY RECEPTION IN GALAKTION TABIDZE’S POST-SYMBOLIST POETRY

Abstract

The article studies a specific yet significant aspect of Galaktion Tabidze’s poetic output in the 1920s, focusing on the reception of European literature in his post-Symbolist poetry. Although this period is commonly referred to as post-Symbolist and there are individual studies addressing various aspects of his creative development, the problem of European literary reception in his poetry remains insufficiently explored. In particular, it has not been adequately clarified how European poetic traditions are reflected, transformed, and reinterpreted in his works of this period. The study situates Tabidze’s poetic development within the broader framework of European Modernism and Georgian literary tradition, showing that his post-Symbolist output represents a complex phenomenon in 20th-century Georgian literature, where national and European literary experiences interact. The analysis suggests that his poetic language and thought are shaped through the process of overcoming Symbolism while still preserving key creative impulses of European Modernism. The article also examines the thematic structure of his 1920s poetry and the European authors who contributed to his creative imagination. It concludes that without analyzing European literary reception, it is impossible to properly assess the continuity or rupture in his post-1921 development, and that the widely held view of a radical ideological and aesthetic transformation requires reconsideration.

Key words: Galaktion Tabidze; Georgian poetry; post-Symbolism; European Modernism; literary reception.