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The Sonnet and the Mukhambazi: Genre Wars on the Edges of the Russian Empire
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 October 2020
Abstract
Genres travel in multiple directions. This article maps the evolution and movement of two lyric genres in Georgia, a small nation situated south of the Caucasus mountains, between Russia, Turkey, and Iran. The mukhambazi arose from a polyglot urban culture rooted in Near Eastern traditions of bardic performance and festivity, while the sonnet was imported around the time of the Russian Revolution as a marker of European modernization. The brief coexistence of these two genres allows for a reexamination of the foundational opposition between East and West. Moving beyond the familiar dichotomy of tradition and modernity, this essay explores the texts and debates of more than a century, reconstructing the discrepant cosmopolitanisms and multiple modernities that typified the Caucasus region. In doing so, it seeks both to make available a literary archive unknown to American readers and to contribute to ongoing debates on the relations between the local, the national, and the imperial as cultural formations.
- Type
- Special Topic: Remapping Genre Coordinated by Wai Chee Dimock and Bruce Robbins
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- Copyright
- Copyright © 2007 by The Modern Language Association of America
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