Arthur Leist about (not only) the Georgian Literature

Abstract

Arthur Leist (8 July 1852, Breslau – 22 March 1927, Tiflis) was a German writer, journalist, and translator of Georgian and Armenian literature. He was born and educated in Breslau. In Poland he published, among other works, The Sketches from Georgia (Warsaw 1885; German edition: Georgien: Natur, Sitten und Bewohner, 1885). He died in Tiflis and was buried in the Didube Pantheon. This paper presents Leist’s statements about Georgian literature and Western European, Russian, and Armenian literature, based on The Sketches from Georgia and the article About the Georgian Literature (Ateneum 1884). The paper consists of four chapters: 1. Preface (Leist’s biography, Andrzej Woźniak’s research, Leist’s publications in Poland, etc.); 2. The echoes of European literature (Russian romantics – A. Pushkin, M. Lermontov – about the Caucasus, A. Griboyedov, G. Byron and Byronism, translations of Mickiewicz’s poetry into Georgian, etc.) 3. Georgian literature (Shota Rustaveli, N. Baratashvili, I. Chavchavadze, etc.) 4. Around the opinions of literary critics. Instead of a conclusion, the paper includes reviews of The Sketches from Georgia in periodicals such as Ateneum, Kurier Codzienny, and Przegląd Literacki, as well as Leist’s relationship with Friedrich Bodenstedt and his journalistic style.