Funagories of Lado Asatyan

Abstract

Familiar or unknown sides of the spiritual world of this or that writer are interestingly revealed in different types of writings of the documentary genre. From this point of view, the so-called "marginal material" records, which reveal the writer's views on the historical-political and cultural events of the contemporary existence, without any embellishment, caused special interest.

The presence of Georgians in the first half of the 20th century offered Kalmosians a unique way to preserve their national identity, which led to the thematic and genre diversity of Georgian writing of this period.

The epochal problems of the mentioned age were impressively reflected not only in poetry, artistic-documentary prose, epistolary heritage, memoirs, diaries and "district book" records, but also in such humorous poems known as funagories, which by their content can be attributed to marginal culture.

The first half of the 20th century opened a wide arena for funagories as the most scandalous and funny poems, whose addressees were creative writers, politicians and public figures of the mentioned era.

Seemingly humorous poems, which seemed to be intended only for a circle of friends and served for entertainment, were actually a powerful weapon that showed its harsh critical-revealing pathos and mercilessly attacked various ugly sides of life.

Among the funagorists, Lado Asatiani stood out for his special pathos, whose funagories, as Nika Agiashvili added, "hit the mark".

Lado Asatian's indomitable character is shown by his funagories, whose targets were in many cases the representatives of proletarian literature, those who represented "the institution of intellectual slavery created during socialism".

Despite the many objections accompanying the violent regime, which were aimed at suppressing any free thought, the funagories of Lado Asatiani directly reflected the cultural existence of Georgians in the first half of the twentieth century with a strong critical-revealing voice.