Existential Concepts – Absurd and Suicide – in Guram Rcheulishvili’s Stories

Abstract

In European literature, the existential tendencies of the closed soviet cultural space started to emerge in the 1970s, although certain earlier precursors had been noticeable in Guram Rcheulishvili’s prose. The article analyses suicide as an escape from an absurd way of life on the examples of two stories – „From the mountains to the city“ and „Batareka Tchintcharauli“.
The literary image of Salamura (the Piper) vividly reflects a person fighting against the world and against its harsh laws. This person tries to protect himself and his existence in the time and space, in which he feels happy. But the confronting world tries to subdue him and manages to do so. Through this story, Guram Rcheulishvili creates a literary image of a person, rebelling against the irrational, absurd world, who finally turns into Sisyphus.
Mzia Batareka’s daughter lives in the harsh social surroundings. For that reason, she creates her own beautiful world, where freedom and romanticism dominate. Her thoughts are far away from the worldly, mundane human existence and pain. However, she suddenly encounters the stark reality of life, that destroys her imaginary world. She eventually becomes estranged to the surroundings, and feels insurmountable obstacle between her desires and the created circumstances. These factors are sufficient reasons for committing suicide. The estranged world leaves only one way out and leads her to the act of suicide.
As Albert Camus puts it, in such a case, the world is neither rational nor irrational. It is merely senseless. According to existential philosophy, suicide is the way of escape from this absurd world. This is how this concept is perceived in the discussed stories by Guram Rcheulishvili.