AN INVARIANT OF THE CONCEPT OF THE LITERARY HERO: THE WAR NARRATIVE

Abstract

Georgian literature assigned the hero a mission of solving urgent problems (social, political, religious, moral...) and assumed responsibility for the ongoing processes; the hero, by overcoming huge obstacles, sometimes even at the cost of his/her own life, would establish a way of life beneficial to the society and uphold values ​​of high moral standard. Therefore, the heroic character was revealed, on the one hand, by the act of self-sacrifice, and on the other hand, by setting a moral example. Thus, the notion of heroic character underwent certain changes in the sixteen-century-long Georgian literature - from the Middle Ages to the era of postmodernism. Each era offered its moral standard, which would change with time, and, therefore, the moral hero would align with it. That is why there is no general, universal definition of a positive, ideal hero even today, nor can it exist. Taking into consideration that within the last three decades, the "theatre of war" has become almost an everyday occurrence for Georgian reality, it has become a subject of debate in modern Georgian literature as to what are the different versions of the concept of a literary hero within the war narrative. In this article, we analyze the stories of modern Georgian writers - Giorgi Sosiashvili, Guram Odisharia and Mikho Mosulishvili; their stories illustrate the inner world of a person, their conscious and unconscious layers in an unadorned way at the most difficult moment for a human - while making a choice between life and death. According to the concept of the analyzed works, heroes still exist today; oftentimes they cannot be distinguished in society, and only in an extreme situation (in this specific case, in war conditions) their true face is revealed. The stories of Giorgi Sosiashvili, Guram Odisharia and Mikho Mosulishvili encourage the reader to understand what qualities determine the preservation of the personal profile and their humanity in the inhuman conditions of war or in the time of severe crisis; they give the reader an opportunity to understand the importance of general concepts in the life of society (spirituality, moral debt, self-awareness, courage) as well as outline the connection with the history of the past.

Keywords: The concept of a literary hero,  notion of a heroic character, war narrative, war as an extreme situation, a hero of the "theatre of war”.