Anti-utopian Mood, Liminality, and Literature. Irma Ratiani
in the country were disjointed and disordered. Not everyone could have resisted the ongoing political process with their creative work, but those who managed to do so were violently punished. Among them was the classic of Georgian literature – Mikheil Javakhishvili, a writer who chose freedom of creativity over slavery. He worked with great success on the verge of High Modernism and Realism and was able to give a depth of anti-utopian mood to his main text – “Jakho’s Dispossessed" (“Jakhos Khiznebi”). This novel reveals the versatility of the writer’s work and puts Georgian literature of that period on par with European and World literature, where the anti-utopian mood as well as the formation of rebellious characters against the hateful order has been started. Consequently, this book is a first attempt to read one of the most prominent Georgian texts in the wide context of anti-utopian thinking.
Definition of literary anti-utopia, its genre specificity and peculiarities, is one of the important problems of contemporary literary studies. Expansion of literary research in this direction was caused by a highly significant characteristic of this problem: the essential role and function of anti-utopian thinking have been clearly demonstrated in the formation of art and literature of the 20th century.
The study of anti-utopian novel, as a distinct but important literary structure, was started in the 1940s–50s. Since the 1980s, the interest toward it grew up and literary anti-utopia fairly moved into the midpoint of contemporary literary criticism. It is noteworthy that the researchers’ attitude toward the problem, from the very beginning, was distinguished by certain ambiguities. For some critics, the definition of a literary anti-utopia was identified with the notion of political conjuncture and bore propagandistic character, whereas for others it was beyond the narrow political framework and acquired the status of a full-fledged aesthetical model. The basic reason for this disagreement, I believe, was an ideological position: if in the Soviet criticism the anti-utopian mood was a synonym for ←11 | 12→the breakdown of Communist harmony1, in the Western criticism it was perceived as a necessary attribute of the 20th century’s cultural context2. Later, in the process of breaking ideological clichés, post-Soviet literary criticism joined the global trends of anti-utopian researches3.
Another reason for the disagreement was and still is a genre status of anti-utopia – whether it is an autonomous literary genre or not. If some critics consider it as an autonomous literary genre4, others approach the issue more cautiously5. This reason for the disagreement never was and is not connected with an ideology, but just with a different methodological approach toward the literary anti-utopia. I support the last opinion and, accordingly, in this book, anti-utopia will be considered an autonomous literary genre. I will attempt to prove my opinion with the help of a holistic approach toward the anti-utopian genre as well as with the in-depth analyses of chronotopic models and their functioning in the anti-utopian text. Both methods are also intended to allow me ←12 | 13→to highlight a specific model of literary anti-utopia – the Eschatological Anti-Utopia. Theoretical opinion will be strengthened by the comprehensive analyses of particular literary texts, such as Vladimir Nabokov’s Invitation to a Beheading and Bend Sinister and Mikheil Javakhishvili’s Jakho’s Dispossessed.
My desire to bring together the two outstanding writers of the 20th century has its reasons. One of those writers is an international celebrity and the other is a victim of the “unread problem” of small literatures, such as Georgian, and their unification under the umbrella of anti-utopia strengthens the authority of anti-utopia as a large-scale literary phenomenon and provides with an opportunity to expand the history of a particular literary genre in the direction of Georgian literature.
I hope that this work will contribute to getting to know modern Georgian literature better and stimulate further academic discussions on the topic.
←13 | 14→←14 | 15→
1 Literaturnii Entsiklopedicheskii Slovarj. M.: Sovetskaja Entsiklopedija, 1987 (Литературный энциклопедический словарь. М.: Советская энциклопедия, 1987); Arab-Ogli E. V. Utopicheskom Anti-mire// O Sovremennoi Burjuaznoi Estetike. M. Iskusstvo, 1976 (Араб-Оглы Э. В утопическом антимире. // О современной буржуазной эстетике. Сб. статей. Вып. 4. Современные социальные утопии и искусство. М.: Искусство, 1976).
2 Kumar K. Utopia and Anti-Utopian Modern Times. T.J. Press Ltd, Padstow: 1991; Baker R. S. Brave New World: History, Science and Dystopia. G.K. Hall & Co, 1990; Dahrendorf R. Out of Utopia: Toward a Reorientation of Sociological Analysis // Utopia. Ed. by George Kateb. Atherton Press, New York: 1971; Kumar K. Utopia and Anti-Utopian Modern Times. T.J. Press Ltd, Padstow: 1991; Elliot R. C. The Shape of Utopia. Studies in a Literary Genre. The University of Chicago Press, 1970.
3 Galtseva R., Rodnjanskaja I. Pomexa – chelovek. Opit Veka v Zerkale Antiutopii. Novii Mir, 12. M.: 1988 (Гальцева Р. Роднянская И. Помеха – человек. Опыт века в зеркале антиутопии. Новый мир. №12, М.: 1988); Latinina, J. V Ojidanii Zolotogo Veka: Ot Skazki k Antiutopii. Oktjabrj, 6, 1989 (Латынина Ю. В ожидании золотого века: от сказки к антиутопии. Октябрь. №6, М. 1989); Lanin, B. Russkaja Literaturnaja Antiutopija. M.:1993 (Ланин Б. А. Русская литературная антиутопия. М.: 1993).
4 Elliot R. C. The Shape of Utopia. Studies in a Literary Genre. The University of Chicago Press, 1970; Lanin, B. Russkaja Literaturnaja Antiutopija. M.:1993 (Ланин Б. А. Русская литературная антиутопия. М.: 1993).
5 Kumar K. Utopia and Anti-Utopian Modern Times. T.J. Press Ltd, Padstow: 1991; Baker R. S. Brave New World: History, Science and Dystopia. G.K. Hall & Co, 1990; Galtseva R., Rodnjanskaja I. Pomexa – Chelovek. Opit Veka v Zerkale Antiutopii. Novii Mir №12. M:. 1988; (Гальцева Р., Роднянская И. Помеха – человек. Опыт века в зеркале антиутопии. Новый мир. №12, М.: 1988).
Chapter One Literary Anti-Utopia and the General Trends of Its Development
The importance of anti-utopia as a form of thinking for 20th-century literature and art could be described as one of the most determinant models for 20th-century aesthetics.
What is anti-utopia and what are the theoretical and methodological aspects of interpreting it? What are the genre-defining parameters of anti-utopia and how are they realized in literary text? Is it possible or not to highlight the chronotopic categories in the context of literary anti-utopia?
The questions outlined above are rather timely for modern literary studies, and settling those problems will shed light on the researches dealing with 20th-century anti-utopian novel.
One aspect should be put forward: the anti-utopian model of thinking is closely linked with the utopian model. This is why I gain an in-depth understanding of the problem deeply which we