GEORGIAN FOLK BALLAD – THE LAD FROM TAVPARAVANI – REFLECTION IN GURAM DOCHANASHVILI’S SHORT STORY THE LAD FROM TAVPARAVANI

Abstract

At the end of the short story The Lad from Tavparavani Guram Dochanashvili' writes: "I dedicate this story to the peasantry - the author of Georgian folk poetry", which confirms that the inspiration of his text is not a Greek folk myth, but only the Georgian ballad.

Guram Dochanashvili's short story The Lad from Tavparavani is compositionally complete literary representation of the folk ballad. The hermeneutic and comparative study of the text reveals that the main character created by the writer is represented right by the mythological sacredness and the primordial fullness of the myth.

With the intertexts of folklore word of mouth and the unmistakable feelings experienced by the writer, Guram Dochanashvili tells us about the brilliant Triad, the idea of the divine trinity and its step-by-step transformation: word (God) - folklore (people) - literature (poet). The story is based on the idea of approaching the creative God and the paradigm for the development of this idea involves the dynamics of the Triad mentioned above.

The Lad from Tavparavani follows a difficult, but true path leading him to the light. In the story, a direct way of approaching the divine and the sacred through speech, poetry, and art is emphasized;

In Guram Dochanashvili's The Lad from Tavparavani, as I have mentioned above, there is a whole bunch of Georgian folk word of mouth: here we can see samples of romantic, as well as labor, harvesting, mourning and household folklore.

In the text, one of the most important themes of the “Great” literature is highlighted once again - the relationship between society and a person different from society. For the author, "Dolabi" is a literary concept that he needs for exposing the ruthlessness of people.

The folk ballad of The Lad from Tavparavani evokes a great emotion and a lot to think about; Guram Dochanashvili's literary reflection and interpretation is one of the best ways to read it. The story includes deep and mystical layers from an existential point of view, the extension of which considers many possible options and interpretations; the presented paper is an attempt of one of those.

Keywords: the Lad from Tavparavani, folklore, Georgian, folk, poetry, ballad, sea.