On June 18, Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University (TSU) hosted a presentation of the English-language monograph by Professor Elguja Khintibidze “Medieval Georgian Romance “The Man in a Panther-Skin” and Shakespeare’s Late Plays.” The monograph fully informs the reader about The Man in the Panther’s Skin by Shota Rustaveli and reveals its parallels with pre-Renaissance European literature. In particular, it appears that the European society familiarized itself with The Man in the Panther’s Skin not in the 19th century but much earlier, in the 17th century and it had been used as a literary source in Shakespeare’s dramaturgy.
Deputy Minister of Education and Science, Alexander Tevzadze, Head of the Department of the Official Language, Giorgi Alibegashvili, Dean of the TSU Faculty of Humanities, Nana Gaprindashvili, professors and students attended the presentation.
Deputy Minister of Education and Science, Alexander Tevzadze said that Georgian literature had played an important role in creating western European values: “It is a very interesting fact that the vector of present Georgian development is related to European values. The research by Elguja Khintibidze makes it clear that Georgian literature has made its contribution to the creation of these values.”
Dean of the TSU Faculty of Humanities, Nana Gaprindashvili described the monograph by Elguja Khintibidze as “a revolution in Rustvelian studies. It is the major scientific discovery through which we confirm that “The Man in the Panther’s Skin” took its worthy place in the history of world literature as far back as the 17th century.”
Professor Elguja Khintibidze said that discussions over the book and its topic continued for almost 10 years not only in Georgia, but also in the United States and Europe. “For already centuries, the English literary studies has been looking for a literary source, which had been the basis for three great plays – by Shakespeare and two of his successors. So, this is not a novelty only for Georgian literary studies. I think that it is a great presentation of Georgian world to European culture and civilization,” he said.
The monograph promotes an innovative approach regarding the relationship of English dramaturgy in the early 17th century with Oriental literature. The love story of the protagonists of The Man in a Panther-Skin may have served as one of the literary sources for the latest period of Shakespeare and his contemporary dramatists. The main plot line of the two plays by Beaumont and Fletcher – Philaster and A King and No King reveals a transfer of the main plot of this literary source to other setting with other characters. The same source provides composition as well as the main idea and the topic for Shakespeare’s Cymbeline. In addition, in other plays of the same period of Shakespeare, reminiscences about composition and plot details of the Georgian romance are also observed.
The book was published by Adolf M. Hakkert publisher in Amsterdam in 2018.
