Identities and Representations in Georgia from the 19th Century to the Present

Description

This interdisciplinary volume explores various identities and their expressions in Georgia from the early 19th century to the present. It focuses on memory culture, the politics of history, and the relations between imperial and national traditions. It also addresses political, social, cultural, personal, religious, and gender identities. Individual contributions address the imperial scenarios of Russia’s tsars visiting the Caucasus, Georgian political romanticism, specific aspects of the feminist movement and of pedagogical reform projects before 1917. Others discuss the personality cult of Stalin, the role of the museum built for the Soviet dictator in his hometown Gori, and Georgian nationalism in the uprising of 1956. Essays about the Abkhaz independence movement, the political role of national saints, post-Soviet identity crises, atheist sub-cultures, and current perceptions of citizenship take the volume into the contemporary period. Georgian history and culture through an interdisciplinary perspective New research about identities and representations Contributions by distinguished scholars from Georgia, Europe and the USA Acknowledgements - VII Notes on transliteration and spelling- IX List of abbreviations- XI Introduction - Hubertus Jahn - 1 Past and future of the Stalin museum in Gori - Lasha Bakradze - 9 Soviet, national, local? Representations and perceptions of Joseph Stalin as a political and cultural figure in Gori - Katrine Bendtsen Gotfredsen - 17 Historical debates and the Likhni declaration as a decisive event in the Georgian-Abkhaz conflict - Malkhaz Toria - 29 The liminal: Colonial identity on the margins of an empire - Nutsa Batiashvili - 39 National identity and perceptions of citizenship in Georgia over the last decade - Natia Mestvirishvili, Maia Mestvirishvili and Tamar Khoshtaria - 53 Georgian nationalism and Soviet power. Between accommodation and revolt - Jeremy Smith - 69 Meaningless people. Atheism, subjectivity and unrepresented identities in Georgia - Martin Demant Frederiksen - 83 Iakob Gogebashvili and the natural method. Textbooks, modernity and nationalism in the late tsarist periphery - Timothy K. Blauvelt and Anton Vacharadze - 99 Old saints and new anxieties. Sainthood and nationhood in modern Georgia - Nikoloz Aleksidze - 117 Georgian political romanticism in the Caucasus - Zaal Andronikashvili - 137 The women’s question in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and Georgia’s national movement - Khatuna Gvaradze - 151 Visits of tsars to the Caucasus as representations of empire - Hubertus Jahn - 169 List of contributors - 185 Index of persons - 191