Monday 21 April 2014

Zurab Karumidze (ზურაბ ქარუმიძე)
source: http://www.7days.ge/index2.php?cstart=5&
do=cat&category=literature

His books, written in a modern way, are even similar to the writings of James Joyce. As a literary scientist, he dedicated his research to postmodern American metafiction, which is noticeable also in his works. His last work is "Dagny or A Love Feast", partly historical and partly a fiction work, showings Tbilisi as the city between the East and the West, mythical and mythological.

7 comments:

Kristína Pabišová said...

Zurab Karumidze was born in 1957. He got his degree in English from Tbilisi State University; he got his PhD in 1984 for the dissertation on the Wit and Conceit in the poetry of John Donne. He worked for years as a research associate for the Center for XX Century Literary studies at the Tbilisi State University. In 1994-95 he had a stint at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee as a visiting Fulbright Scholar studying Post-Modernist American meta-fiction. Two of his short stories were published in the USA (Clockwatch Review, Bloomington, IL, 1996). His publications include a collection of short stories "Opera" (1998), novels "The Winedark Sea" (2000), "Of Goats and Men" (2003) and "Dagny or a Love Feast" (2006). He co-edited (with James Wertsch) the book "Enough: Rose Revolution in the Republic of Georgia, 2003" (Nova Science Publishers, New York, 2005). His book on the history of jazz music – "The Life of Jazz" – came out in 2009 and received Georgia's #1 Literary Award "Saba" (2010).
http://bookplatform.org/en/activities/896-zurab-karumidze.html

Unknown said...

Zurab Karumidze's book Dagny or a Love Feast is nominated for DUBLIN LIETERARY AWARD 2014.
It is very interesting book. As the title suggests, there are two contrasting stories unfolding in this novel.
One is of the Norwegian poetess and dramatist Dagny Juel (1867-1901) – a beautiful, artistic, creative woman, whose errant life brings her to a totally foreign country, where she dies falling victim to deranged male fantasies. DAgny Juel was an inspiration to such celebrities as Edward munch, August Strindberg, Gustav Vigeland, and was the “Queen” of Berlin bohemia in 1890s.
The other story is a phantasmagoric mixture of religious mysticism and eroticism, mythic origins of arts and politics. It is a play with various cultural themes, both primitive and highly developed, traversing such extremes as Shamanic Art and Bach’s Art of the Fugue, Gnosticism and Modernist esthetics, Magic and Linguistics…. This mix of themes and ideas is rendered in a story of a so called Agape – the Love Feast – a half-religious half-artistic event..

Unknown said...

source : http://www.impacdublinaward.ie/nominees/dagny-or-a-love-feast/

Kristína Pabišová said...

article by Karumidze.
"Georgia between the Aesthetics and the Politics of Democracy"

http://www.ifsdeurope.com/popup/between.pdf

Vanesa Csengodyová said...

Zurab Karumidze is a famous Georgian writer. He is a laureate of the most prestigious literary award in Georgia, the SABA, and now he’s an author of one of Georgia’s most boisterous books Caucasian Foxtrot. Karumidze never lacked attention from literary critics and scholars. They have often noticed that Karumidze's novels are highly intellectual and experimental with a special style.

Kristína Pabišová said...

Dagny is a phantasmagorical mixture of religious mysticism and eroticism, bound up with the mythical origins of civilization, and taking in everything from shamanic art to Bach’s Art of the Fugue. With this novel the author invites each and every reader to his Love Feast, which is a story made out of “almost nothing”-
link

Paťa Patz. said...

Dagny alebo Hody lásky - román v angličtine. Ako napovedá názov, odvíjajú sa v ňom dva kontrastné príbehy.Prvý sleduje nórsku poetku a dramatičku Dagny Juel (1867 - 1901), ktorú potulný život priviedol do celkom cudzej krajiny. Dagny Juel bola inšpiráciou celebrít ako Edward Munch, August Strindberg, Gustav Vigeland, bola "Kráľovnou" berlínskej bohémy v 90. rokoch 19. storočia. Druhý príbeh je fantazmagorický mix religiózneho mysticizmu a erotiky, mýtckých koreňov umenia a politiky. Je to hra s rozličnými kultúrnymi témami, traverzujúca medzi extrémami ako šamanské umenie a Bachovo umenie fúgy, gnosticizmus a modernistická estetika, mágia a lingvistika. Táto zmes tém a ideí sa predkladá v príbehu tzv. agapé - polonáboženskej, poloumeleckej udalosti. Miesto, kde sa hody lásky pretínajú a ovplyvňujú s realitou, je mesto bezmedzného hodovania a vínom roznietených diskusií - Tbilisi.
úryvky v angličtine