Irine Modebadze

Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University

Senior Researcher of Shota Rustaveli Institute of Georgian Literature

irinamodeb@gmail.com, ORCID: 0000-0001-5432-0243

Tbilisi, Georgia

Aleksandre Khakhanashvili on the history of ancient Georgian literature

Abstract

Dividing the history of national writing into periods (periodization) is to establish the main criteria for its systematization and at the same time evaluations. The history of assessment of the development of national writing by Georgian critics is not only important from the point of view of the history of Georgian theoretical-critical thinking, but also very noteworthy in terms of studying the main tendencies of the development of the literary process of the new time. At the end of the 19th century, a number of summary works were created in Georgia, in which critics tried to characterize the Georgian literary process in the wider context of the development of Georgian writing. Aleksandre Khakhanashvili made a great contribution in determining the periodization of Georgian literature. An important stage in the development of Georgian literary studies began with the publication of "Essays" by Aleksandre Khakhanashvili. His works were published in Georgian, Russian and European languages. It should be noted that the scientist has made a great contribution to the search, identification, recording, description, processing, publication and popularization of Georgian writing and culture of ancient Georgian literature. As it is believed in Georgian literary studies, the scholar's works are one of the first attempts to convey a unified picture of our writing. Korneli Kekelidze believed that Khakhanashvili's systematic course on the history of Georgian literature was quite a valuable work, because not only Georgians were introduced to Georgian literature through these works, but for a long time it also met the first requirements of our school, since it was converted into a textbook. And indeed Al. Khakhanashvili together with Kita Abashidze, were given the most honorable place in the study of the historical point of view of the works of Georgian writers. The scientist himself admitted that he approached the texts in question, sometimes from a multifaceted historical-literary point of view, and sometimes only by conveying the content and external description. It is significant that the scholar understands the genre and artistic-aesthetic characteristics of ancient Georgian literature in the general context of world literature. The scholar's understanding and characterization of ancient literature deserves special attention, which is not only an indicator of the achievements of that time and the specificity of the author's thinking, but also a proof of the development of Georgian literary theory in the general European context. The study of our cultural heritage with the modern methodologies of the finds of previous centuries, already forgotten, sheds light, not only on Al. Khakhanashvili's scientific achievements, but also important for studying the history of Georgian critical thought conducted by us. The analysis of Khakhanashvili's views made it clear - when understanding the history of ancient Georgian writing in a unified way, the scientist takes the basic principles of the cultural-historical school as a basis and at the same time considers the artistic-aesthetic principle.