Senior Research Fellow
Doctor of Philological Sciences
Shota Rustaveli Institute of Georgian Literature, Iv.Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University
Tbilisi, Georgia
ORCID: 0009-0007-1183-777X
Senior Research Fellow
Doctor of Philological Sciences
Shota Rustaveli Institute of Georgian Literature, Iv.Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University
Tbilisi, Georgia
ORCID: 0009-0007-1183-777X
Travel Writings from Georgia’s Lost Territories and Their Worldview Discourse (19th Century)
Travel Essays from the Lost Territories of Georgia and Their Worldview Discourse (19th c.) From the beginning of the 19th century a new trend appeared in Georgian travel literature – to pay special attention to reflection and study of Georgian reality. Later on, such an interest was greatly facilitated by the Georgian press – a number of travel essays were published in Tsiskari, Droeba, Mnatobi and other magazines and newspapers, which were directed not only to describe the history and geography, nature, historical monuments, customs and traditions of the people of various regions of Georgia, but also to spread and deepen the national values among the readers. Against this background, special importance was given to the description of the situation on the territories remaining outside the borders of Georgia. In the article we will touch upon the travel essays from the lost territories of Georgia. These are: the most extensive part of Ivane Kereselidze’s Travel Books (published in magazine Tsiskari in 1857-1870) – Samtskhe-Saatabago (Tsiskari, 1870, №3-5), containing information on Meskheti, separated from Georgia and converted to Islam at that time, and Dimitri Janashvili’s (pseudonym Ingilo Janashvili) Traveler’s Historical Note on Saingilo (magazine Mnatobi, 1872, №4-5), in which the author conveys the problems of one more lost region of Georgia – Saingilo. Both these works are noteworthy because the writer-travelers are not satisfied only with descriptive narrative. The authors attach great importance to making a certain impact on the readers – the local population – to enable them, even under their most difficult living conditions, to assess objectively the historical reality and retain as far as possible their national self-awareness and
Keywords: Travel Essays, Meskheti, Saingilo.