Levan Beburishvili

PhD in Philology

Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University

Assistant Professor

Tbilisi, Georgia

ORCID: 0009-0008-0270-6302

l.beburishvili@tsu.ge

Rapiel Eristavi and Georgian “samotsianelebi” (representatives of the sixties)
Rapiel Eristavi belongs to the group of prominent writers who to some extent prepared the ground for the emergence of the Georgian ‘Samotsianelebi’ in the literary arena. Rapiel Eristavi is a writer of the transition period. He neither belongs to the generation of romantics nor the realists. Nevertheless, the writer introduced many innovations in Georgian literature. ‘Samotsianelebi’ had great respect for Rapiel Eristavi. It is no coincidence that they were the initiators of the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the writer's creative activity. In their literary articles, ‘Tergdaleulebi’ repeatedly mentioned Rapiel Eristavi’s contribution to Georgian literature. According to Ilia Chavchavadze, Rapiel Eristavi "created his own school of folk poetry", Akaki Tsereteli compared Rapiel's heritage to "the mountain and the sea", and Jacob Gogebashvili considers Eristavi to be an example of a "whole personality" that should be imitated by young writers. In the presentation, based on appropriate memoir material and journalistic articles, the peculiarities of the personal-literary relationship between Rapiel Eristavi and the Georgian ‘Samotsianelebi’ will be discussed.
Keywords: Georgian literature, Rapiel Eristavi, Tergdaleulebi.