DECONSTRUCTION OF THE SOVIET ERA IN FICTION (DATO TURASHVILI, GURAM KARTVELISHVILI)

Abstract

In the last decade of the 20th century, fiction having become free from ideological pressure as a result of well-known historical events was given the opportunity to interpret the public situation undisguisedly, free of subtexts. In the post-Soviet era, it was relevant and important to represent the deconstruction of the Soviet reality and the post-colonial trauma, so that the society could go through a painful stage of self-identification necessary for its further development. Literature was supposed to influence the consciousness of a man of the Soviet era and contribute to an already painful and difficult process of re-evaluation of values. It is quite normal that the reflection on the tragic events of the Soviet period is one of the prominent trends of modern Georgian literature, as well as the personal drama caused by the failure of the Soviet ideology, which is directly related to the peculiarities of the perception and acceptance/non-acceptance of the new reality created in the post-colonial era. Many remarkable works have been created on this topic by authors of different generations and styles of writing which reflect on many aspects of the recent past. This paper analyzes two short stories: Where Do Pigeons Build Their Nests by Dato Turashvili and Caucasian Pitomnik (Nursery) by Guram Kartvelishvili. The reviewed texts clearly show that both writers participate in the process of deconstruction of the Soviet era. They use different artistic methods to create the thinking space for the reader to deeply imagine the peripeties of Soviet life, the fate of individuals in a totalitarian, violent society, and to be able to correctly perceive and reflect on the even more difficult reality resulting from the inevitable collapse of this society, which should logically lead to the understanding of the necessity of action.