"CAPTAIN VAKUSH" by Givi Margvelashvili
Keywords:
Captain Vakush, Totalitarianism, Father, Inheritance, Advanced, “Is-Mih“Abstract
Givi Margvelashvili - a double emigrant, a victim of Nazism and Communism is rightly considered one of the greatest creators of modern times. His miscellaneous works are created on the boundary between two cultures i.e. two different worldviews. He started writing at the age of 30, when after leaving the Saxenhausen concentration camp appeared in a completely foreign environment, in his historical homeland. There was only the German language attaching the writer to her aunt’s family who decided to shelter the writer after his return to the homeland.
On the one hand working on German literature, and on the other hand, the literary disagreement that Margvelashvili showed against the current regime, increasingly formed the basis for the statement that "language and theme choose the writer" and not vice versa. That’s why the characters from his book i.e. the inhabitants of his illimitable literary world had to meet the reader in a new reality.
One thing is clearly noticeable in Margvelashvili's literary work - the material having been developed in his book corresponds to the Western philosophical discourse, while the source of the topics within the texts is typically Georgian. Carlo Jorjaneli writes that in this autobiographical novel, "the facts are not distorted, at the same time the reality seen through the eyes of the youngster almost becomes the fruit of fantasy, the real stories often carry a grotesque image intensifying the general connotation of the book" (Margvelashvili 2005: 7).
"Captain Vakush" is an autobiographical work belonging to the genre of historical novel. At a given moment the main focus of the manuscript is the first volume of the writers work. The writer’s literary art is preserved in the text where the massages are conveyed grotesquely with the help cynicism and allegory. An excursion in the novel is led by Givi Margvelashvili - a teen writer. The principle of historicism is observed in the novel; the facts are based on real events and conveyed ironically; mental image of the totalitarian regimes is identified by metaphorical subtexts.
In this paper, we want to focus on one of the chapters of his autobiographical text “Captain Vakush” entitled “Is-Mih and His Captives”.
References
Bakhtadze, Georgians in the Second World War, available at: https://gfsis.org.ge/files/my-world/17/3.pdf
Brachuli, I., zakariadze, A., Ramishvili, V., Jalaghonia, D. (2006). Philosophiis shesavali [Introduction to Philosophy], Tbilisi, Meridiani
Georgians Abroad, n.d. available at: http://www.nplg.gov.ge/emigrants/ka/00000037/
Margvelashili, G., (2005). Kapitani Vakushiri [Captain Vakush] Tbilisi, Kavkasiuri Sakhli
Margvelashili, G., (2018). Me tsignis gmiri var [I Am Hero of the Book] Tbilisi, Kavkasiuri Sakhli
Margvelashili, G., (2018). Opitseri Pembri [Officer Pembr] Tbilisi, Kavkasiuri Sakhli
Ratiani, I., (2010). Teksti da qronotipi [text and Chronotype], Tbilisi, University Publishing House
