![Black Sea as literary and cultural space (II) [Second part] Cover Image](/api/image/getbookcoverimage?id=document_cover-page-image_1436878.JPG)
La mer Noire comme espace littéraire et culturel (II) [Deuxième partie]
Black Sea as literary and cultural space (II) [Second part]
Author(s): Nino Abakelia, Mzagho Dokhtourichvili, Nestan Kutivadze, Roxana Elena Doncu, Liliana Burlacu, Ligia Tudurachi
Contributor(s): Yordan Ljuckanov (Editor), Eyüp Özveren (Editor), Mzagho Dokhtourichvili (Editor), Alexis Nuselovici (Editor)
Subject(s): Anthropology, Social Sciences, Language and Literature Studies, Fine Arts / Performing Arts, Customs / Folklore, Music, Studies of Literature, Romanian Literature, Cultural Anthropology / Ethnology, Film / Cinema / Cinematography, Georgian literature
ISSN: 2815-5424
Published by: Сдружение „Транспонтика“
Keywords: Black Sea; Dobrudja; Mingrelia; Abkhazia; Georgian folklore and fold religion; Georgian literature of the 2nd half of the 20th c.; Romanian literature of the 19-20th c.; Romanian popular culture of the last third of the 20th c.
Summary/Abstract: The six articles present Georgian folklore, ritual and literary imaginaries of the (Black S/)sea, as well as Romanian literary imaginary of a contested littoral microregion, Dobrudja, and of Black Sea.
Series: Transponticae
- E-ISBN-13: 978-954-354-009-9
- Print-ISBN-13: 978-619-92370-0-7
- Page Count: 130
- Publication Year: 2023
- Language: English, French
The Black Sea in the mythological cosmography and everyday life of the Georgians
The Black Sea in the mythological cosmography and everyday life of the Georgians
(The Black Sea in the mythological cosmography and everyday life of the Georgians)
- Author(s):Nino Abakelia
- Language:English
- Subject(s):Anthropology, Social Sciences, Customs / Folklore, Geography, Regional studies, Human Geography, Cultural Anthropology / Ethnology
- Page Range:167-186
- No. of Pages:20
- Keywords:mythological cosmography; everyday life; Mother of the Sea; Patroness of Beasts; paradise
- Summary/Abstract:The Georgians belong to those people who associate their historical and mythological memory to the Black Sea and who embed it in a particular locus at the periphery of their mythological cosmography. The present article focuses on the female personification of the Black Sea called zghvis nene (lit. the Mother of the Sea), her thiasos (male and female anthropomorphic creatures), called mesepebi, and their mythology in Georgian cultural practice. Marine mythology abundant in symbols provides a semiotic context for mythic discourse. The mentioned marine symbols are discussed from a spatiotemporal perspective, which in turn is based on cosmological symbolism. The paper shows how the Black Sea (as a cosmic zone) symbolically organises the space of the worldview of Georgians and how it forms the icon of the ordered place. Seen from the structural semantics approach, the organised world (fenced in with and limited by temporal, spatial and causal factors) is associated with the inner world (society) and the unordered world (nature). It shows how the marine personages (or “cycling guests”, as the author defines them) impact and influence the well-being of the society when they arrive on the shore from the s/Sea to visit the living annually, at one and the same time (in October-November, when their powers are thought to be strongest). In the Georgian mythological tradition the Black Sea is preferably associated with the female principle – zghvis nene; according to her attributes (sceptre and black miraculous dog) and functions, she is compared to the other cosmicising Mother – the Patroness of the Beasts. The marine realm is also associated with the garden of the so called Batonebi (lit. the Adonai / the Lords – the spirits of the infectious diseases), the description of which alludes to the Garden of Eden, etc. Highly charged with religious symbolism, the Mother of the Sea (zghvis nene), her attendants (mesepeni) and other personages of the sea reveal cosmic symbolism that in turn reflects the mainstay of symbolic thought of Georgians. The article tries to show how the basic male and female symbolism of the marine inhabitants corresponds to the symbolism of the gendered landscapes and how everyday life changes through ritual into an autumn mythic-ritual scenario and how the surrounding societal environment is being mythologised.
La symbolique de la mer dans la poésie populaire géorgienne
La symbolique de la mer dans la poésie populaire géorgienne
(Sea symbolism in Georgian popular poetry)
- Author(s):Mzagho Dokhtourichvili
- Language:French
- Subject(s):Anthropology, Social Sciences, Language and Literature Studies, Customs / Folklore, Studies of Literature, Cultural Anthropology / Ethnology, Georgian literature
- Page Range:187-214
- No. of Pages:28
- Keywords:sea; popular poetry; symbolism; metaphorisation; hyperbolism
- Summary/Abstract:As the Georgian researcher Zurab K’ik’nadze rightly points out, the Georgian can be characterised by a Carl Schmittean formulation: “the Georgian is a man of the land. […] He stands and moves on the solid surface of the earth. This is his position and his ground [...] this determines his impressions and world perception” (kiknaże 2010: 136). K’ik’nadze also mentions that the history of Georgia, even if of a state previously stretching between two seas, has no memory either of significant relations with the sea or, a fortiori, any maritime battles. As a result, since Georgia’s military and economic activities were not linked to the sea, the latter was considered a natural phenomenon imbued with the sense of disaster or cataclysm that was totally opposed to the land, thus demarcating a limit beyond which any trace of human dominance is lost. Though the sea is mentioned several times in the ‘The man in the panther’s skin’ by Shota Rustaveli, where the kingdom of the seas under the name of Gulansharo is represented, the presence of sea is just an acquisition of the literary work and it remains there (kiknaże 2010: 137). As for the co-eval contributor to the Georgian medieval historical compendium ‘The life of Georgia’, the so-called Historian of King Tamar, the sea carries a metaphorical sense – it is a means to extoll, one more time, the force and the authority of the King: “She is just about to absorb the whole sea into herself, like a cloud of soft rain for everyone” (k̕art̕̕lis c̕xovreba 1959: 148; cited by kiknaże 2010: 138). We were able to find this metaphor under different variants in popular poems that are analysed in the present article. Georgian mythology, which feeds popular poetry, creates the mythologem of an opposition, of a deadly fight between the sea (the Black Sea) and the earth. “Georgian folk poetry is a boundless sea”, can be read in the introduction to the collection ‘Verse, you won’t get lost’ (činčarauli 1985: 3). This hyperbolic use of the sea declares the richness of popular Georgian poetry, where the sea in its symbolical uses occupies a considerable place, as, hopefully, proven here above. In the present article, we ask questions about the representation of sea in popular Georgian poetry, about sea symbolism as carried out through metaphors, comparisons and, in particular, hyperbolas.
The theme of the Black Sea in Georgian literature of the second half of the twentieth century and of today
The theme of the Black Sea in Georgian literature of the second half of the twentieth century and of today
(The theme of the Black Sea in Georgian literature of the second half of the twentieth century and of today)
- Author(s):Nestan Kutivadze
- Language:English
- Subject(s):Language and Literature Studies, Geography, Regional studies, Human Geography, Studies of Literature, Georgian literature
- Page Range:215-226
- No. of Pages:12
- Summary/Abstract:Reflection on the conceptual understanding of sea in Georgian culture does not have a long and rich history, despite the fact that the sea has long been associated with the national consciousness. Moreover, the peculiarities of artistic understanding of the phenomenon of sea in Georgian literary studies are not distinguished by an extraordinary tradition of research except for recent publications. Although the current situation has its reasons and explanations, it should also be noted that metaphorical conceptualisation of the sea can be found in the Georgian theological writings, the basis of which is the Bible. The theme of sea is cultivated in the Georgian literature of the second half of the twentieth century. Along with the mythological-folkloric layers, sea acquires a new content field and sometimes serves as the determiner of the ideological-artistic concept of a literary work (O. Chʼiladze, G. Dochanashvili, G. Rcheulishvili, J. Topuridze, G. Gegeshidze). The occupation of Abkhazia gave special importance to the artistic and symbolic conceptualisation of sea. Along with the artistic interpretation of the topic of ethnic conflict and war, an understanding of sea as a lost space and a lost territory has emerged (B. Khvedelidze, G. Odisharia, N. Shataidze, D. Tʼurashvili). The concepts revealed in the artistic interpretation of the notion of sea in the Georgian literature of the second half of the 20th century show important tendencies which had place in the aesthetics of landscape as well as in the symbolic and metaphoric comprehension of sea. The latter comprises the plane of content of the epoch and its moral and aesthetic aspects. At the end of the 20th century the conceptualisation of the notion of sea was closely related to the territorial integrity of the country.
Black Sea as a space of contrasts: from political death camp to communist tourist paradise
Black Sea as a space of contrasts: from political death camp to communist tourist paradise
(Black Sea as a space of contrasts: from political death camp to communist tourist paradise)
- Author(s):Roxana Elena Doncu
- Language:English
- Subject(s):History, Language and Literature Studies, Fine Arts / Performing Arts, Music, Studies of Literature, Recent History (1900 till today), Romanian Literature, Post-War period (1950 - 1989), Film / Cinema / Cinematography
- Page Range:229-256
- No. of Pages:28
- Keywords:Black Sea; forced labour camps; prison poetry; communism; popular culture
- Summary/Abstract:The article traces the development of a literary and cultural imaginary of the Black Sea space after the Communist takeover in Romania. First, the space of the Black Sea is reflected in the poetry of detention written by the political detainees working at the Danube-Black Sea Canal. ‘Black’ becomes both a geographical attribute, as the whole space is criss-crossed with references to the Kara Su Valley (Black Water Valley) and the black water (Cernavodă), and also the colour of pure negativity, expressing the terror and deprivations experienced by prisoners. If physical repression leads to the emergence of a new literary genre, where literature becomes a testimonial of the pure negativity of the experience of terror, psychic repression seems to underlie the uncanny atmosphere in A. E. Baconsky’s stories of the sea. ‘The madmen’s equinox and other stories’ paints the image of the sea as the uncanny, mysterious Other, a source of anxiety for the main characters, who experience “the terror of history” as a cyclical past, returning and engaging each of them in some kind of cosmic drama. With the Thaw and the re-evaluation of Soviet policy undertaken by Nikita Khrushchev, we witness the emergence of a new aesthetic, more Western-oriented. The Black Sea takes on the qualities of a mediator or turns into a paradisiacal space. Yet, during the last stage of Nicolae Ceaușescu’s rule, the attribute ‘black’ suddenly ceases to appeal, and the sea turns blue. This newly acquired blueness was part and parcel of a massive programme of history-rewriting, instrumental for his project of building a national brand of socialism.
Baltchik 1920-1940: prémisses pour une utopie culturelle
Baltchik 1920-1940: prémisses pour une utopie culturelle
(Balchik 1920-1940: premises for a cultural utopia)
- Author(s):Liliana Burlacu
- Language:French
- Subject(s):History, Language and Literature Studies, Fine Arts / Performing Arts, Visual Arts, Studies of Literature, Local History / Microhistory, Romanian Literature
- Page Range:257-267
- No. of Pages:11
- Keywords:Romanian Balchik; Bulgarian Balchik; artistic community; “Silver Coast” Free University; literary sociability; Octavian Moșescu
- Summary/Abstract:The interest of this work is centred on the role that the Black Sea area has in supporting the cultural and literary construction of national identities. More precisely, the subject matter of the research is Balchik in the 19131940, when the town operated under Romanian administration, like the whole of Southern Dobrudja (the so-called Quadrilateral), ceded to Romania pursuant to the 1913 Treaty of Bucharest. Since Southern Dobrudja was much more exotic and more ‘Oriental’ than Romanian Dobrudja, Romanians would quickly come to view it as some sort of Côte d’Azur (in fact, this is why Balchik was also called Côte d’Argent, ‘Silver Coast’). While Queen Marie of Romania built a castle here, which, starting from 1926, became one of her preferred summer residences, a special cultural program, planned by mayor Octavian Moșescu at the beginning of the 1930s, would encourage the influx of writers, painters and artists (a summer university, namely Universitatea Liberă “Coasta de Argint” [the “Silver Coast” Free University] was established in 1926, together with a newspaper under the same name). Thus, Balchik would enter a summer “circuit” which was equally popular touristically and culturally, and which would bring fame to this vacation destination. Encouraged by the attempts of Romanian administration to set up an infrastructure in the 1930s (in the area, an aerodrome was opened and regular bus routes between Dobrich and Balchik were organised), the Romanians were to be drawn to Balchik, first of all, because of the exotic local life, which merged enchantingly, both in architecture and in the daily activities, the Bulgarian, Turkish and Roma traditions.Queen Marie, in particular, was keen on the preservation of authenticity. The interest in the multicultural heritage of Balchik was a component of the specific projects of the 1920s, but one of them had a focus on the Bulgarian culture. The newspaper Coasta de Argint, which had pages in Romanian, Bulgarian and, later, in Turkish, would publish Bulgarian translations of texts by Romanian writers (Mihai Eminescu, Ion Luca Caragiale) and Romanian translations of texts by contemporary Bulgarian writers (Iordan Stratiev, Elin Pelin (Dimitŭr Ivanov), Dora Gabe). Together with the Romanian writers, Bulgarian writers (Dora Gabe, Ivan Shishmanov) were also invited to hold lectures in the Free University of Balchik. If, between 1920 and 1940, Balchik became a special destination for the Romanians, a space that would become the object of paintings and a subject of literature, it was precisely because it operated as a perfect, voluntary and fortunate exile, both a real and an ideal one, where the Romanian culture would be engaged in a fruitful conversation with the other local cultures.
Politiques identitaires et esthétisations de la mer Noire (le cas roumain)
Politiques identitaires et esthétisations de la mer Noire (le cas roumain)
(Identity policies and aestheticisations of the Black Sea (the Romanian case))
- Author(s):Ligia Tudurachi
- Language:French
- Subject(s):History, Language and Literature Studies, Fine Arts / Performing Arts, Visual Arts, Studies of Literature, Local History / Microhistory, Romanian Literature
- Page Range:268-288
- No. of Pages:21
- Keywords:heterotopia; annexation tourism; Mangalia; Balchik; decoration; landscape; coat of arms
- Summary/Abstract:What we intend is to contrast two ways of using the Romanian territory of the Black Sea as a holiday space in the interwar period. These two modes are defined in relation to two spaces, Mangalia and Balchik. Having both their eastern roots in Greek Antiquity, and later having passed through a Romanian administration, these two settlements had different historical destinies in the twentieth century, which ended by differentiating them simultaneously as landscape, population and mode of life. Created on the ruins of old Callatis, Mangalia has always belonged to the Romanian territory. Of an exhilarating beauty, it was still in the 1920s an almost wilderness, whose life was simply prolonged on the old ruins, making one feel fatigue and exhaustion that were closely related to the missing civilisations. On the contrary, Balchik was an integral part of the Bulgarian territory, having passed to Romania only between 1913 and 1940, together with the rest of the Quadrilateral. At that time, Queen Mary of Romania built a castle here, to use it as a summer residence, a castle surrounded by a garden that would soon become famous throughout Europe. With the queen, Balchik began to be frequented by the Romanian aristocracy and, above all, by elite artists from Bucharest, by writers and painters whom the queen invited to her worldly salon. The Balchik Municipality also contributed to increasing the interest of the artists for this place, providing them lands for villas and creating here, starting in 1926, a Summer University. All these events are decisive in influencing the form, equally aristocratic and academic, of the summer sociability practiced in the Balchik; while the same writers and painters discovered, in the 1920s, the “wild” attraction of Mangalia. Romanian literature and plastic arts are thus nourished, at the time, by two very different types of “affections” of the sea, simultaneous and concurrent. On the one hand, the “vestiges” and ruins of Mangalia, a territory much older than the rest of the country, lived with a strong sense of ethnicity. On the other side, the castle and the princely life, well regulated by social codes, but newly created, on a borrowed territory, which continued to be linked to another national culture. In its Romanian part, the Black Sea thus feeds between the two wars a discourse about a wild paradise, raw and unappropriated (Mangalia) – and a discourse about an ideal exile and the utopian spaces of adoption (Balchik). All of this is due to expire in the early 1940s.
