City-urvban monster in some XIX century fiction

Abstract

During the development of human civilization, the city was always different from the countryside. The city symbolized the center of statehood, the abode of the merchant bourgeoisie and aristocracy, the common people who were mainly engaged in handicrafts. From the beginning of the XIX century, the flow of free population of the village moves to a city. Thus, the categorical difference between urban and rural populations becomes more apparent, which is reflected in fictional texts. The city appears both real and virtual, which is "born" in the writer's imagination and is bearing the signs of the creator's worldview. Not infrequently the city emerges as a dangerous place for people from the countryside. So, it emerges as a cold, unbearable, often dangerous, unknowable monster.The city appears in Georgian literature mainly from the second half of the XIX century ("Surami Fortress" by D. Chonkadze, "Solomon Isakich Mejghanuashvili" by L. Ardaziani, "Is a Man a Human ?!" by I. Chavchavadze etc.).In contrast, the city is obscured as an urban monster in the works of folk writers ("House of Demeter", "A Heroic Woman" by S. Mgaloblishvili), where a peasant man fleeing from village to town perceives the city with fear and still in his thoughts is striving to the village. A study of this is presented in this given article.